[PATCH] keys: allow request-key path to be configured via Kconfig
From: Gary Guo <gary@kernel.org>
Date: 2026-06-07 13:50:06
Also in:
keyrings, lkml
Subsystem:
keys/keyrings, security subsystem, the rest · Maintainers:
David Howells, Jarkko Sakkinen, Paul Moore, James Morris, "Serge E. Hallyn", Linus Torvalds
From: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net> Some Linux distributions (e.g. NixOS) does not have /sbin present, and they currently carry patches to replace /sbin/request-key to some other path. Follow the way modprobe handles this by making this a Kconfig option which defaults to the current /sbin/request-key. Also changed "char const" to "const char" as checkpatch complains otherwise. Link: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/6b316287bae2ee04c9b93c8c858d930fd07d7338/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/request-key-helper.patch Signed-off-by: Gary Guo <gary@garyguo.net> --- I did not update mentions of /sbin/request-key in documentation and elsewhere, as "/sbin/request-key" is concise while "request-key UMH" is more mouthful and less clear. Number of distros that doesn't have /sbin is limited so I think it wouldn't create much confusion. Similarly, there are a lot of places where /sbin/modprobe is mentioned despite it is technically configurable. --- security/keys/Kconfig | 9 +++++++++ security/keys/request_key.c | 2 +- 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/security/keys/Kconfig b/security/keys/Kconfig
index f4510d8cb485..ee3c3d85fc03 100644
--- a/security/keys/Kconfig
+++ b/security/keys/Kconfig@@ -40,6 +40,15 @@ config KEYS_REQUEST_CACHE key. Pathwalk will call multiple methods for each dentry traversed (permission, d_revalidate, lookup, getxattr, getacl, ...). +config REQUEST_KEY_PATH + string "Path to the request-key binary" + default "/sbin/request-key" + help + Path of the request-key usermode helper binary. + + This program is invoked by the kernel when the kernel is asked for + a key that it doesn't have immediately available. + config PERSISTENT_KEYRINGS bool "Enable register of persistent per-UID keyrings" help
diff --git a/security/keys/request_key.c b/security/keys/request_key.c
index a7673ad86d18..ac8f9d1a87ad 100644
--- a/security/keys/request_key.c
+++ b/security/keys/request_key.c@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ static int call_usermodehelper_keys(const char *path, char **argv, char **envp, */ static int call_sbin_request_key(struct key *authkey, void *aux) { - static char const request_key[] = "/sbin/request-key"; + static const char request_key[] = CONFIG_REQUEST_KEY_PATH; struct request_key_auth *rka = get_request_key_auth(authkey); const struct cred *cred = current_cred(); key_serial_t prkey, sskey;
base-commit: 6e845bcb78c95af935094040bd4edc3c2b6dd784 -- 2.54.0