[v3,1/2] Documentation/admin-guide: introduce perf-security.rst file

Commit Message

Alexey Budankov Nov. 26, 2018, 9:02 a.m. UTC

Implement initial version of perf-security.rst documentation file
covering security concerns of perf_event_paranoid settings.

Suggested-by: Thomas Gleixner <[e-mail]>
Signed-off-by: Alexey Budankov <[e-mail]>
---
Changes in v3:
- toning down of the markup for "scope, access and resource"
- adding definite article for "Linux implementation"
Changes in v2:
- reverted patches order in the set to avoid CI issue
- replaced old PCL referencing by PE (Perf Events)
- skipped >=3 setting documentation at the moment
---
 Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst | 77 +++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 77 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f0fb75cadaed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ 
+.. _perf_security:
+
+Perf Events and tool security
+=============================
+
+Overview
+--------
+
+Usage of Performance Counters for Linux (perf_events) [1]_ , [2]_ , [3]_ can
+impose a considerable risk of leaking sensitive data accessed by monitored
+processes. The data leakage is possible both in scenarios of direct usage of
+perf_events system call API [2]_ and over data files generated by Perf tool user
+mode utility (Perf) [3]_ , [4]_ . The risk depends on the nature of data that
+perf_events performance monitoring units (PMU) [2]_ collect and expose for
+performance analysis. Having that said perf_events/Perf performance monitoring
+is the subject for security access control management [5]_ .
+
+perf_events/Perf access control
+-------------------------------
+
+For the purpose of performing security checks the Linux implementation splits
+processes into two categories [6]_ : a) privileged processes (whose effective
+user ID is 0, referred to as superuser or root), and b) unprivileged processes
+(whose effective UID is nonzero). Privileged processes bypass all kernel
+security permission checks so perf_events performance monitoring is fully
+available to privileged processes without access, scope and resource
+restrictions. Unprivileged processes are subject to full security permission
+check based on the process's credentials [5]_ (usually: effective UID, effective
+GID, and supplementary group list).
+
+perf_events/Perf unprivileged users
+-----------------------------------
+
+perf_events/Perf *scope* and *access* control for unprivileged processes is
+governed by perf_event_paranoid [2]_ setting:
+
+-1:
+     Impose no *scope* and *access* restrictions on using perf_events performance
+     monitoring. Per-user per-cpu perf_event_mlock_kb [2]_ locking limit is
+     ignored when allocating memory buffers for storing performance data.
+     This is the least secure mode since allowed monitored *scope* is
+     maximized and no perf_events specific limits are imposed on *resources*
+     allocated for performance monitoring.
+
+>=0:
+     *scope* includes per-process and system wide performance monitoring
+     but excludes raw tracepoints and ftrace function tracepoints monitoring.
+     CPU and system events happened when executing either in user or
+     in kernel space can be monitored and captured for later analysis.
+     Per-user per-cpu perf_event_mlock_kb locking limit is imposed but
+     ignored for unprivileged processes with CAP_IPC_LOCK [6]_ capability.
+
+>=1:
+     *scope* includes per-process performance monitoring only and excludes
+     system wide performance monitoring. CPU and system events happened when
+     executing either in user or in kernel space can be monitored and
+     captured for later analysis. Per-user per-cpu perf_event_mlock_kb
+     locking limit is imposed but ignored for unprivileged processes with
+     CAP_IPC_LOCK capability.
+
+>=2:
+     *scope* includes per-process performance monitoring only. CPU and system
+     events happened when executing in user space only can be monitored and
+     captured for later analysis. Per-user per-cpu perf_event_mlock_kb
+     locking limit is imposed but ignored for unprivileged processes with
+     CAP_IPC_LOCK capability.
+
+Bibliography
+------------
+
+.. [1] `<https://lwn.net/Articles/337493/>`_
+.. [2] `<http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/perf_event_open.2.html>`_
+.. [3] `<http://web.eece.maine.edu/~vweaver/projects/perf_events/>`_
+.. [4] `<https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page>`_
+.. [5] `<https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/security/credentials.html>`_
+.. [6] `<http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/capabilities.7.html>`_
+