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Date:      Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:30:16 -0400
From:      Coleman Kane <cokane@FreeBSD.org>
To:        marcus@marcuscom.com
Cc:        gnome@freebsd.org, "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com>
Subject:   Re: Seahorse issues
Message-ID:  <1208129416.1279.7.camel@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <20080412.123845.-216597985.imp@bsdimp.com>
References:  <1208018626.10093.7.camel@localhost> <1208019652.82222.13.camel@shumai.marcuscom.com> <1208020460.10093.20.camel@localhost> <20080412.123845.-216597985.imp@bsdimp.com>

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On Sat, 2008-04-12 at 12:38 -0600, M. Warner Losh wrote:
> In message: <1208020460.10093.20.camel@localhost>
>             Coleman Kane <cokane@freebsd.org> writes:
> : On Sat, 2008-04-12 at 13:00 -0400, Joe Marcus Clarke wrote:
> : > On Sat, 2008-04-12 at 12:43 -0400, Coleman Kane wrote:
> : > > On Fri, 2008-04-11 at 11:54 -0400, Joe Marcus Clarke wrote:
> : > > > On Fri, 2008-04-11 at 10:14 -0400, Coleman Kane wrote:
> : > > > > I removed your earleir patch, which has the side effect of caus=
ing=20
> : > > > > gnome_keyring_memory_try_alloc(size) to act in a manner that vi=
olates=20
> : > > > > its documentation, as well as causing the above bug. I then add=
ed the=20
> : > > > > three patches to security/seahorse which I posted into=20
> : > > > > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3D527193 today:
> : > > > >   * http://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=3D109055
> : > > > >   * http://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=3D109056
> : > > > >   * http://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=3D109057
> : > > > >=20
> : > > > > These three alter the behavior of Seahorse in the manner I desc=
ribed=20
> : > > > > above, and don't touch gnome-keyring. For all purposes, I *thin=
k*=20
> : > > > > gnome-keyring is acting properly here. The consumer of gnome-ke=
yring=20
> : > > >=20
> : > > > You're right.  I was hoping to hack g-k in such a way to avoid ha=
ving to
> : > > > fix other broken consumers in the future.  Of course, my approach=
 was
> : > > > very wrong.
> : > > >=20
> : > > > > (seahorse) should first be testing if the features that it want=
s to use=20
> : > > > > are actually provided by the library before it blindingly attem=
pts to=20
> : > > > > use them. This is, IMHO, why gnome-keyring provides the *_try(.=
..)=20
> : > > > > versions of its securemem alloc functions.
> : > > >=20
> : > > > Fixing seahorse is the right thing to do.  The bug has been moved=
 into
> : > > > gnome-keyring's court, so you way want to get them to move it bac=
k.
> : > > >=20
> : > > > >=20
> : > > > > Additionally, you'll get a seahorse g_warning about unavailable=
 secure=20
> : > > > > memory now too.
> : > > >=20
> : > > > Thanks for your work here.  Feel free to commit these patches to =
our
> : > > > seahorse port.
> : > > >=20
> : > > > Joe
> : > > >=20
> : > >=20
> : > > Joe,
> : > >=20
> : > > I've got a revised version of the patch that allows the seahorse pa=
nel
> : > > applet to work properly, as well as all of the other seahorse-based
> : > > gadgetry that is installed with the security/seahorse port. This
> : > > performs the conditional alloc remappings inside of
> : > > seahorse-secure-memory.c, and warns the user appropriately when the=
y
> : > > don't have mlock() privileges.
> : >=20
> : > I like this approach.  It's much more central.
> : >=20
> : > >=20
> : > > I'm attaching the full patch to security/seahorse here for you to l=
ook
> : > > over. I'll submit a forward of this email to ports@ as well (so tha=
t we
> : > > don't incur the wrath of cross-post-thulu).
> : > >=20
> : > > If it doesn't break anything, and seems to make this thing work for
> : > > everyone, then I'll commit it later on (probably tomorrow or Monday=
).
> : > > I'd like to give it time to simmer, in case there are more things
> : > > touched by this problem that might come up.
> : > >=20
> : > > As for the mlock() privilege issue, I am not sure what we'll do abo=
ut
> : > > that. It would be nice, at some point, to support that feature for
> : > > normal users. As long as I'm diligent about my swap-space, etc... a=
nd
> : > > access to my workstation, I'm *pretty* secure. Things like common-u=
se
> : > > lab computers, etc... are probably more appropriate for this featur=
e.
> : >=20
> : > Yes, Linux allows this, but Solaris does not (Solaris and FreeBSD sha=
re
> : > the same behavior).  Perhaps it's something FreeBSD could allow via a
> : > sysctl.  The default would be to restrict mlock(2) to processes with =
an
> : > effective UID of 0, but the sysctl could change that behavior to allo=
w
> : > normal users to make use of the feature.
> : >=20
> : > Joe
> : >=20
> :=20
> : My understanding of the Linux implementation is that there's an rlimit
> : for mlock that restricts the maximum usage for unprivileged, and allows
> : unlimited usage for privileged users. This behavior is new as of kernel
> : 2.6.9, and kernels 2.6.8 and earlier use similar semantics to what
> : FreeBSD and Solaris do now.
>=20
> That's actually not a bad idea...  But we need to be careful to make
> sure that fork can't be used to multiply the rlimit and make a DoS
> possible.
>=20
> Warner
>=20

Joe,

I've gone ahead and committed the ports/security/seahorse patch (to
allow it to fall-back to using insecure memory, with a warning) after
not getting any bad reports from gnome@ and ports@.

Hopefully this will make the newfangled GNOME security apps more usable
on FreeBSD.

--
Coleman Kane

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