On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 5:43 PM, Kees Cook <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 4:41 AM, David Drysdale <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Add a document describing the process of adding a new system call,
>> including the need for a flags argument for future compatibility, and
>> covering 32-bit/64-bit concerns (albeit in an x86-centric way).
>>
>> Signed-off-by: David Drysdale <[email protected]>
>> Reviewed-by: Michael Kerrisk <[email protected]>
>
> This is great!
>
> Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <[email protected]>
>
> I have a few minor suggestions below...

Thanks, I've applied all bar one -- a query below.

>> ---
>>  Documentation/adding-syscalls.txt | 454 
>> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>  1 file changed, 454 insertions(+)
>>  create mode 100644 Documentation/adding-syscalls.txt
>>
>> diff --git a/Documentation/adding-syscalls.txt 
>> b/Documentation/adding-syscalls.txt
>> new file mode 100644
>> index 000000000000..5f52edda8951
>> --- /dev/null
>> +++ b/Documentation/adding-syscalls.txt

[snip]

>> + - If there is an existing capability that governs related functionality, 
>> then
>> +   use that.  However, avoid combining lots of only vaguely related 
>> functions
>> +   together under the same bit, as this goes against capabilities' purpose 
>> of
>> +   splitting the power of root.  In particular, avoid adding new uses of the
>> +   already overly-general CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability.
>> + - If there is no related capability, then consider adding a new capability
>> +   bit -- but bear in mind that the numbering space is limited, and each new
>> +   bit needs to be understood and administered by sysadmins.
>
> Perhaps mention alternative mechanisms for access control when working
> on file descriptors, like avoiding security issues by looking at fd
> _opener_ credentials, rather than current's credentials?

I'm struggling to cope up with text about this that doesn't feel either
too vague or much too detailed / internal, so maybe I'm misunderstanding
what you're after.  Could you clarify or maybe suggest a sentence or two?

Thanks,
David
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