From 31e62c2ebbfdc3fe3dbdf5e02c92a9dc67087a3a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Linus Torvalds Date: Wed, 13 May 2026 11:37:18 -0700 Subject: ptrace: slightly saner 'get_dumpable()' logic The 'dumpability' of a task is fundamentally about the memory image of the task - the concept comes from whether it can core dump or not - and makes no sense when you don't have an associated mm. And almost all users do in fact use it only for the case where the task has a mm pointer. But we have one odd special case: ptrace_may_access() uses 'dumpable' to check various other things entirely independently of the MM (typically explicitly using flags like PTRACE_MODE_READ_FSCREDS). Including for threads that no longer have a VM (and maybe never did, like most kernel threads). It's not what this flag was designed for, but it is what it is. The ptrace code does check that the uid/gid matches, so you do have to be uid-0 to see kernel thread details, but this means that the traditional "drop capabilities" model doesn't make any difference for this all. Make it all make a *bit* more sense by saying that if you don't have a MM pointer, we'll use a cached "last dumpability" flag if the thread ever had a MM (it will be zero for kernel threads since it is never set), and require a proper CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability to override. Reported-by: Qualys Security Advisory Cc: Oleg Nesterov Cc: Kees Cook Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds --- include/linux/sched.h | 3 +++ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+) (limited to 'include/linux') diff --git a/include/linux/sched.h b/include/linux/sched.h index 368c7b4d7cb5..ee06cba5c6f5 100644 --- a/include/linux/sched.h +++ b/include/linux/sched.h @@ -1002,6 +1002,9 @@ struct task_struct { unsigned sched_rt_mutex:1; #endif + /* Save user-dumpable when mm goes away */ + unsigned user_dumpable:1; + /* Bit to tell TOMOYO we're in execve(): */ unsigned in_execve:1; unsigned in_iowait:1; -- cgit v1.2.3