[PATCH v12 5/7] docs: proc: add documentation for "hidepid=4" and "subset=pid" options and new mount behavior

From: Alexey Gladkov
Date: Sun Apr 19 2020 - 10:11:51 EST


Signed-off-by: Alexey Gladkov <gladkov.alexey@xxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@xxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/filesystems/proc.rst | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 54 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.rst
index 38b606991065..360486c7a992 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.rst
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ fixes/update part 1.1 Stefani Seibold <stefani@xxxxxxxxxxx> June 9 2009
4 Configuring procfs
4.1 Mount options

+ 5 Filesystem behavior
+
Preface
=======

@@ -2142,6 +2144,7 @@ The following mount options are supported:
========= ========================================================
hidepid= Set /proc/<pid>/ access mode.
gid= Set the group authorized to learn processes information.
+ subset= Show only the specified subset of procfs.
========= ========================================================

hidepid=0 means classic mode - everybody may access all /proc/<pid>/ directories
@@ -2164,6 +2167,57 @@ information about running processes, whether some daemon runs with elevated
privileges, whether other user runs some sensitive program, whether other users
run any program at all, etc.

+hidepid=4 means that procfs should only contain /proc/<pid>/ directories
+that the caller can ptrace.
+
gid= defines a group authorized to learn processes information otherwise
prohibited by hidepid=. If you use some daemon like identd which needs to learn
information about processes information, just add identd to this group.
+
+subset=pid hides all top level files and directories in the procfs that
+are not related to tasks.
+
+5 Filesystem behavior
+----------------------------
+
+Originally, before the advent of pid namepsace, procfs was a global file
+system. It means that there was only one procfs instance in the system.
+
+When pid namespace was added, a separate procfs instance was mounted in
+each pid namespace. So, procfs mount options are global among all
+mountpoints within the same namespace.
+
+::
+
+# grep ^proc /proc/mounts
+proc /proc proc rw,relatime,hidepid=2 0 0
+
+# strace -e mount mount -o hidepid=1 -t proc proc /tmp/proc
+mount("proc", "/tmp/proc", "proc", 0, "hidepid=1") = 0
++++ exited with 0 +++
+
+# grep ^proc /proc/mounts
+proc /proc proc rw,relatime,hidepid=2 0 0
+proc /tmp/proc proc rw,relatime,hidepid=2 0 0
+
+and only after remounting procfs mount options will change at all
+mountpoints.
+
+# mount -o remount,hidepid=1 -t proc proc /tmp/proc
+
+# grep ^proc /proc/mounts
+proc /proc proc rw,relatime,hidepid=1 0 0
+proc /tmp/proc proc rw,relatime,hidepid=1 0 0
+
+This behavior is different from the behavior of other filesystems.
+
+The new procfs behavior is more like other filesystems. Each procfs mount
+creates a new procfs instance. Mount options affect own procfs instance.
+It means that it became possible to have several procfs instances
+displaying tasks with different filtering options in one pid namespace.
+
+# mount -o hidepid=2 -t proc proc /proc
+# mount -o hidepid=1 -t proc proc /tmp/proc
+# grep ^proc /proc/mounts
+proc /proc proc rw,relatime,hidepid=2 0 0
+proc /tmp/proc proc rw,relatime,hidepid=1 0 0
--
2.25.3