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Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH][ACM] kernel enforcement of vbd policies via blkb

To: Keir Fraser <Keir.Fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH][ACM] kernel enforcement of vbd policies via blkback driver
From: Reiner Sailer <sailer@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:47:46 -0400
Cc: ncmike@xxxxxxxxxx, xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, xense-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Bryan D Payne <bdpayne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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[For xense readers, please read the earlier mails in this
 email-thread on xen-devel (Reiner)]

Keir Fraser <Keir.Fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on 07/26/2006 09:49:46 AM:

>
> On 26 Jul 2006, at 14:25, Mike D. Day wrote:
>
> >> The tools hook is not just a usability/conformity check. The check
> >> ensures that the tools will not set up entries in xenstore that would
> >> allow blkback to create a non-conformant vbd. So there is no way for
> >> a guest to trick blkback into creating a non-conformant vbd: it can
> >> only connect to vbds specified in its config file or added later via
> >> the vbd-add xm hotplug command. The tools stack should perform its
> >> compiance checks on both 'xm create' and 'xm vbd-add', and that
> >> should be sufficient.
> >
> > Yes, but that relies on the tools being correct and invulnerable to
> > attacks like buffer overflow. Further, it does not disallow an
> > alternative tool from bypassing or corrupting the conformance and
> > authorization policy. Any program with the ability to open a socket to
> > xenstore can open the way. Allowing the checks within the hypervisor
> > is much safer against these types of attacks or errors.
>
> If an attacker has access to the control plane (essentially anything
> with root privileges in domain0) what is to stop him from creating his
> own domain, with security credentials allowing it to communicate with
> domains A and B, and with its own proxy comms driver for circumventing
> any Xen checks that are intended to prevent communication between A and
> B?
>
>   -- Keir


this is not necessarily about attackers. It is simply that we anticipate many tools that manage the configuration/life-cycle management of domains and it is very difficult for us to screen all these developments to make sure that such tools do not introduce commands that forget about the labeling/label checking accidentally. If they do, resource access control can silently fail.

For example, the Xen hypervisor always checks that a domain has a valid security label when it is started on an ACM-enabled Xen or no label if it is started on Xen with ACM off. The hypervisor layer can however not check resource labels but relies on the VMM resource virtualization to do this (currently Domain0, in general the resource hosting domain).

I understand Keir's current decision (relying on resource label checks far in the user space of the resource hosting domain) to be the result of a trade-off between (a) minimizing the Xen linux-sparse tree (the burdens related to getting Xen support quickly into Linux) and (b) the size of "the code required to do the right thing"  to achieve policy compliant resource access control.

Thanks

Reiner
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