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Message-ID: <CAK9i0=pYOy10u=f8AcY9NeATuVB-WRjFhPxZx9=6uncNga0pog@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 12:51:55 +0100
From: Jann Horn <jannhorn@...glemail.com>
To: Daniel Sangorrin <daniel.sangorrin@...hiba.co.jp>
Cc: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, wad@...omium.org, 
	kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com, keescook@...omium.org, 
	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>, Alexei Starovoitov <alexei.starovoitov@...il.com>, 
	Paul Moore <paul@...l-moore.com>, linux-api@...r.kernel.org
Subject: RE: [RFC PATCH 1/1] seccomp: provide information
 about the previous syscall

Am 25.01.2016 4:40 vorm. schrieb "Daniel Sangorrin" <
daniel.sangorrin@...hiba.co.jp>:
> There were a few important points that I didn't mention but are critical
to understand
> what I was trying to do.  The focus of the patch was on protecting
"real-time
> embedded IoT devices" such as a PLC (programmable logic controller)
inside a factory
> assembly line .
>
> They have a few important properties that I took into consideration:
[...]
>     - Mimicry: as I mentioned in the cover letter (and Jann showed with
>        his ROP attack) if the attacker is able to emulate the system
call's order
>        (plus its arguments  and the address from which the call was made)
>        this patch can be bypassed. However, note that this is not easy
for several
>        reasons:
>                + the attacker may need a long stack to mimic all the
system calls and their
>                    arguments.

Note that in a ROP attack, the attacker will often set up his own stack
anyway, so I'm not sure how much of a constraint a short stack really is.

>                + the stealthy attacker must make sure the real-time
application does not
>                    crash, miss any of its deadlines or cause deadline
misses in other apps
>                    [Note] Real-time application binaries are usually
closed source so
>                     this might require quite a bit of effort.
>                + randomized system calls: applications could randomly
activate dummy
>                    system calls each time they are instantiated (and
adjust their BPF filter,
>                    which should later be zeroed).  In this case, the
attacker (or virus)
>                    would need to figure out which dummy system calls have
to
>                    be mimicked and prepare a stack accordingly. This
seems challenging.
>                    [Note] under a brute force attack, the application may
just raise an alarm,
>                     activate a redundant node (not connected to the
network) and
>                     commit digital suicide :).
>
> About the ABI, by all means I don't want to break it. If putting the
field at
> the end does not break it, as Alexei mentioned, I can change it. Also I
would
> be glad to review the SECCOMP_FILTER_FLAG_TSYNC flag mentioned by Jann
> in case there is any interest.
>
> However, I'll understand the NACK if you think that the maintenance is
not worth it
> as Andy mentioned; that it can be bypassed under certain conditions; or
the fact
> that it focuses on a particular type of systems. I will keep reading the
> messages in the kernel-hardening list and see if I find another topic to
> contribute :).

You might want to look into CFI (control flow integrity) - that's probably
a much stronger mitigation than this, and it does not require kernel
support. It also works by verifying transitions, but it checks transitions
of userspace code instead of syscall transitions.

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