• Alexey Budankov's avatar
    perf tools: Support CAP_PERFMON capability · 6b3e0e2e
    Alexey Budankov authored
    Extend error messages to mention CAP_PERFMON capability as an option to
    substitute CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability for secure system performance
    monitoring and observability operations. Make
    perf_event_paranoid_check() and __cmd_ftrace() to be aware of
    CAP_PERFMON capability.
    
    CAP_PERFMON implements the principle of least privilege for performance
    monitoring and observability operations (POSIX IEEE 1003.1e 2.2.2.39
    principle of least privilege: A security design principle that states
    that a process or program be granted only those privileges (e.g.,
    capabilities) necessary to accomplish its legitimate function, and only
    for the time that such privileges are actually required)
    
    For backward compatibility reasons access to perf_events subsystem remains
    open for CAP_SYS_ADMIN privileged processes but CAP_SYS_ADMIN usage for
    secure perf_events monitoring is discouraged with respect to CAP_PERFMON
    capability.
    
    Committer testing:
    
    Using a libcap with this patch:
    
      diff --git ...
    6b3e0e2e
design.txt 17.5 KB