From: Herbert Poetzl (herbert_at_13thfloor.at)
Date: Wed 01 Oct 2003 - 23:52:48 BST
On Wed, Oct 01, 2003 at 02:16:54PM -0700, Chris Wright wrote:
> * Herbert Poetzl (herbert_at_13thfloor.at) wrote:
> >
> > one of the advantages the current _and_ future vserver project
> > has over 'changing/setting some features for a process' is the
> > concept of a context layer, residing between kernel and processes
> > _belonging_ to a context ...
>
> Yes, I agree, this is a useful abstraction.
>
> > you could, for example set up a context which allows a maximum
> > of 10 processes, limited to one ethernet interface, using it's
> > own root/user quota, start some 'virtual' server in this context
> > doing all this init stuff, and then visit this context from
> > outside, via a simple 'context' change ... if you've got the
> > right capabilities/permissions ...
> >
> > I can not imagine how you would do that with the /proc/<pid>/attr/
> > interface, but I'm sure you can explain it to me ...
>
> Put it this way, typical security modules have a notion of a
> context, and the ability to grant/deny actions base on the context.
> The /proc/<pid>/attr interface is how you can set/retrieve the context
> per process, and subsequent fork/exec's can chose how to propagate
> that context. I believe a reasonable portion of vserver can become a
> security module, but there would clearly remain a need for some of the
> virtualization (e.g. hostname, etc.).
hmm, okay I see it now clearly, we should take
the approach which was so successful for scsi ...
echo "vserver add-new-vserver 100 0 1 192 0 0 1" >/proc/1/attr/new
and of course to 'change' the context, a simple
echo "vserver change-to-old-context 100" >/proc/self/attr/migrate
(and it was never seen again, because it vanished in context 100)
will be sufficient ...
seriously I am completely on your side if we talk about
limiting a process or changing it's environment, even
if we talk about setting a class assignment, but I just
don't believe it's the perfect solution for everything ...
best,
Herbert
> thanks,
> -chris
> --
> Linux Security Modules http://lsm.immunix.org http://lsm.bkbits.net