[PATCH v2 0/3] Implement LANDLOCK_RESTRICT_SELF_NO_NEW_PRIVS
From: Justin Suess <hidden>
Date: 2026-07-17 22:03:30
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Howdy This series adds a new landlock_restrict_self(2) flag: LANDLOCK_RESTRICT_SELF_NO_NEW_PRIVS. This is a redesign of v1 [1], which added LANDLOCK_RESTRICT_SELF_NNP_ON_EXEC, a flag staging no_new_privs so that it was only set at the next execve(2). Following Mickaël's feedback, [2] the staging mechanism (credential bit and bprm_committing_creds hook) is dropped entirely. The new flag instead sets the no_new_privs attribute of the calling thread atomically with the enforcement of the ruleset: no_new_privs is set if and only if the landlock_restrict_self(2) call succeeds. Semantics: A single call replaces the usual prctl(PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS) + landlock_restrict_self(2) pair. Because no_new_privs is set by the call itself, the no_new_privs/CAP_SYS_ADMIN precondition is fulfilled by construction, so the flag is usable by unprivileged processes. This is safe for the same reason the prctl(2) pair is: the executed programs can either gain privileges or be restricted, never both. The two states cannot diverge. A failed call (invalid ruleset FD, E2BIG, ENOMEM, interrupted TSYNC, ...) leaves no_new_privs unchanged, and a successful call never returns without no_new_privs set: the attribute is set past the last point of failure, right before commit_creds(), which cannot fail. Combined with LANDLOCK_RESTRICT_SELF_TSYNC, no_new_privs is set on all threads with the same guarantee: each sibling thread sets it in the commit phase of the TSYNC protocol, after its all-or-nothing barrier, so either every thread gets both the domain and no_new_privs, or none does. This also makes it possible to atomically set no_new_privs process-wide, which prctl(2) cannot do. Unlike the v1 flag, this flag requires a ruleset: calls with a ruleset_fd of -1 are rejected. As a consequence of the fulfilled precondition, an unprivileged caller passing unknown flag bits together with this flag receives EINVAL instead of EPERM; the selftests pin this error ordering as well. The reason why -1 ruleset_fd is rejected is basically then we are making a Landlock-flaved prctl(nnp) call that doesn't do anything special. It seems better to be able to have the option to define behavior later rather than have a useless feature stuck in the syscall abi. So we reject the -1 ruleset_fd for now. The Landlock ABI version is bumped to 11. Test coverage: base_test checks that a successful call sets no_new_privs without a prior prctl(2) nor CAP_SYS_ADMIN, that a failed call leaves it unchanged, that the flag requires a ruleset FD, and the updated EPERM/EINVAL ordering. tsync_test checks that TSYNC sets no_new_privs on sibling threads along with the domain. Changes since v1: - Renamed LANDLOCK_RESTRICT_SELF_NNP_ON_EXEC to LANDLOCK_RESTRICT_SELF_NO_NEW_PRIVS, per Mickaël's feedback. - Dropped the staged "on exec" design: removed the credential bit and the bprm_committing_creds hook; no_new_privs is now set atomically with the ruleset enforcement. - The flag now fulfills the no_new_privs/CAP_SYS_ADMIN precondition, a significant departure from the v1. - The flag now requires a ruleset (no ruleset_fd = -1). Otherwise such a call would just == a vanilla prctl no-new-privs call. This is left in case we want to repurpose it later rather than defining useless redundant behavior. [1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-security-module/20260708133928.852999-1-utilityemal77@gmail.com/ (local) [2] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-security-module/20260709.Eaphooyoh6sh@digikod.net/ (local) Justin Suess (3): landlock: Add LANDLOCK_RESTRICT_SELF_NO_NEW_PRIVS selftests/landlock: Test LANDLOCK_RESTRICT_SELF_NO_NEW_PRIVS landlock: Document LANDLOCK_RESTRICT_SELF_NO_NEW_PRIVS Documentation/userspace-api/landlock.rst | 14 +++- include/uapi/linux/landlock.h | 13 ++++ security/landlock/limits.h | 2 +- security/landlock/syscalls.c | 28 ++++++-- security/landlock/tsync.c | 8 ++- security/landlock/tsync.h | 4 +- tools/testing/selftests/landlock/base_test.c | 65 +++++++++++++++++-- tools/testing/selftests/landlock/tsync_test.c | 33 ++++++++++ 8 files changed, 150 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-) base-commit: 55f82176ef8dde632ea3eb94a6224950ed809d7c -- 2.54.0