From: Disha Goel <disgoel@linux.ibm.com>
To: miklos@szeredi.hu, amir73il@gmail.com
Cc: brauner@kernel.org, viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk, jack@suse.cz,
shuah@kernel.org, linux-unionfs@vger.kernel.org,
linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kselftest@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Disha Goel <disgoel@linux.ibm.com>,
stable@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] ovl: fix mount setup failing when override_creds drops CAP_SYS_ADMIN
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:58:57 +0530 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260924112858.51392-1-disgoel@linux.ibm.com> (raw)
When a process drops CAP_SYS_ADMIN and calls fsconfig(FSCONFIG_SET_FLAG,
"override_creds"), overlayfs saves those restricted credentials in
ofs->creator_cred. ovl_fill_super() then wrapped the entire mount setup
in with_ovl_creds(), switching to those restricted credentials for the
duration.
Mount setup calls clone_private_mount(), which checks CAP_SYS_ADMIN
against current credentials. With restricted credentials active, this
check fails with -EPERM and the mount fails even though the calling
process is fully privileged.
Mount setup is a one-time privileged operation and must run under the
caller's credentials. with_ovl_creds() belongs only in post-mount I/O
paths. Remove it from ovl_fill_super().
Fixes: 539a0879de47 ("ovl: allow to specify override credentials")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Disha Goel <disgoel@linux.ibm.com>
---
fs/overlayfs/super.c | 8 ++++++--
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/super.c b/fs/overlayfs/super.c
index bd0a3f9039d2..29f9489b8242 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/super.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/super.c
@@ -1557,8 +1557,12 @@ int ovl_fill_super(struct super_block *sb, struct fs_context *fc)
goto out_err;
}
- with_ovl_creds(sb)
- err = ovl_fill_super_creds(fc, sb);
+ /*
+ * Mount setup must run under the caller's credentials, not
+ * creator_cred: clone_private_mount() requires CAP_SYS_ADMIN,
+ * which override_creds may have dropped.
+ */
+ err = ovl_fill_super_creds(fc, sb);
out_err:
if (err) {
--
2.45.1
next reply other threads:[~2026-09-24 11:29 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-09-24 11:28 Disha Goel [this message]
2026-09-24 11:28 ` [PATCH 2/2] ovl: fix wrong layer paths in mountinfo for detached mount FDs Disha Goel
2026-09-25 15:57 ` Amir Goldstein
2026-09-25 15:04 ` [PATCH 1/2] ovl: fix mount setup failing when override_creds drops CAP_SYS_ADMIN Amir Goldstein
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