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From: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
To: Bradley Morgan <include@grrlz.net>
Cc: brauner@kernel.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org, tglx@kernel.org,
	peterz@infradead.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] signal: add a helper for the si_code kernel impersonation check
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2026 21:26:47 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <anOOd-zNR5IMYSAG@redhat.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260706124003.8000-1-include@grrlz.net>

On 07/06, Bradley Morgan wrote:
>
> +/*
> + * si_code values >= 0 and SI_TKILL are reserved to the kernel. Not even
> + * root can use them to pretend a signal was sent by the kernel or by
> + * kill()/tgkill(), except when signaling itself.
> + */
> +static bool si_code_reserved_to_kernel(int si_code)
> +{
> +	return si_code >= 0 || si_code == SI_TKILL;
> +}

...

>  static int do_rt_sigqueueinfo(pid_t pid, int sig, kernel_siginfo_t *info)
>  {
> -	/* Not even root can pretend to send signals from the kernel.
> -	 * Nor can they impersonate a kill()/tgkill(), which adds source info.
> -	 */
> -	if ((info->si_code >= 0 || info->si_code == SI_TKILL) &&
> -	    (task_pid_vnr(current) != pid))
> +	if (si_code_reserved_to_kernel(info->si_code) &&
> +	    task_pid_vnr(current) != pid)

Well, technically this (cosmetic) change is obviouly correct. And I do agree
it makes sense to factor out these checks and (more importantly) the comments.

But. IMO, the new comment looks a bit worse.

The old comment has "impersonate a kill()/tgkill(), which adds source info"
and this in fact explains that si_code == 0 or si_code == SI_TKILL come with
the real/valid .si_pid and .si_uid  and the reciever can trust them.

As for the naming... I would like to suggest a better name for the new helper
but I can't ;)

Oleg.


  reply	other threads:[~2026-08-05 19:27 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-07-06 12:40 Bradley Morgan
2026-08-05 19:26 ` Oleg Nesterov [this message]
2026-08-05 19:46   ` Bradley Morgan
2026-08-05 20:08     ` Oleg Nesterov

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