From: Konstantin Khorenko <khorenko@virtuozzo.com>
To: devel@openvz.org, Konstantin Khorenko <khorenko@virtuozzo.com>
Subject: [Devel] [PATCH hci-8.1 v3] block: let container root set the block size of and flush its device
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2026 17:00:08 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261029-vstor-137668-block-let-container-root-set-the-block-size-v3-1-c3fd7db3777c@virtuozzo.com> (raw)
From: Eva Kurchatova <eva.kurchatova@virtuozzo.com>
BLKBSZSET and BLKFLSBUF check CAP_SYS_ADMIN in the initial user
namespace, so root in a container cannot set the block size of a block
device it has been given, nor flush its buffers, and mkfs.xfs on a loop
device there stops with "cannot set blocksize 512 on block device
/dev/loopN: Permission denied", or with "Flushing the data device
failed, err=13" once it gets past the first.
Check the capability relative to the container, as the other block
code adapted for containers does, and let container root through only
where its device cgroup grants write access to the device: a device
handed to a container read-only may be held by a filesystem outside
it, and neither its cache nor its block size should be touched from
inside.
https://virtuozzo.atlassian.net/browse/VSTOR-137668
Feature: ve: allow various syscalls in CT root userns
Signed-off-by: Eva Kurchatova <eva.kurchatova@virtuozzo.com>
Reviewed-by: Pavel Tikhomirov <ptikhomirov@virtuozzo.com>
Signed-off-by: Konstantin Khorenko <khorenko@virtuozzo.com>
---
Root in a container cannot run mkfs.xfs on a block device it has been
given: BLKBSZSET and BLKFLSBUF want CAP_SYS_ADMIN in the initial user
namespace. The patch checks the capability relative to the container
and lets container root through only where its device cgroup grants
write access to the device.
v2 also refused BLKFLSBUF from a container with -EBUSY when a
filesystem was mounted on the device. v3 drops that: the path is
reachable only with a write grant on the device, and with that grant
the container can already overwrite the filesystem under the mount, so
forcing its writeback through fs_bdev_sync() is strictly less. The
sync is what syncfs() does, bd_holder_lock is dropped before it, and
invalidate_bdev() frees clean pages only. A container's own mounted
loop device now behaves as on the host.
CT disks handed out by vzctl are not affected: libvzctl grants them
write access for mount only, which bdev_permission(BLK_OPEN_WRITE)
does not satisfy, so they keep getting -EACCES as before.
BLKROSET and BLKRASET stay under capable(): the former flips
BD_READ_ONLY on a device the host may hold, the latter writes the
per-disk bdi shared with the host and every partition. The neoltp CI
carries strict XFAIL rules for the affected tests (PSBM-139222,
PSBM-139077); the xfs ones start passing with this kernel and need a
kernel-version condition, ioctl04 and ioctl06 keep failing.
Assisted-by: LLM
---
Changes in v3:
- Drop the -EBUSY refusal of BLKFLSBUF on a mounted device from a
container, a device the container can write to is synced as on the
host (Pavel Tikhomirov).
- Add Pavel's Reviewed-by.
- Link to v2: http://lore.virtuozzo.com/20261022022554.2427456-1-eva.kurchatova@virtuozzo.com
Changes in v2:
- Device in read-only cannot be flushed or have its block size changed
from CT, depending on cgroup grant. Host path unchanged.
- Device with mounted filesystem denies flush from a container with
EBUSY. Container syncs its own mounts via the filesystem.
- Host and container told apart by ve_is_super(), not by a failing
capable().
- Corrected the claims in the commit message.
- Link to v1: http://lore.virtuozzo.com/20261021175410.2339797-1-eva.kurchatova@virtuozzo.com
To: Pavel Tikhomirov <ptikhomirov@virtuozzo.com>
To: Vladimir Riabchun <vladimir.riabchun@virtuozzo.com>
---
block/ioctl.c | 18 +++++++++++++++---
1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/block/ioctl.c b/block/ioctl.c
index a3c53b04e1e34..c49a35b01cb05 100644
--- a/block/ioctl.c
+++ b/block/ioctl.c
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
#include <linux/backing-dev.h>
#include <linux/fs.h>
#include <linux/blktrace_api.h>
+#include <linux/ve.h>
#include <linux/pr.h>
#include <linux/uaccess.h>
#include <linux/pagemap.h>
@@ -416,10 +417,20 @@ static int blkdev_pr_clear(struct block_device *bdev, blk_mode_t mode,
return ops->pr_clear(bdev, c.key);
}
+/* Container root administers only a device its device cgroup lets it write */
+static bool blkdev_admin_capable(struct block_device *bdev)
+{
+ if (!ve_capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN))
+ return false;
+
+ return ve_is_super(get_exec_env()) ||
+ !bdev_permission(bdev->bd_dev, BLK_OPEN_WRITE, NULL);
+}
+
static int blkdev_flushbuf(struct block_device *bdev, unsigned cmd,
unsigned long arg)
{
- if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN))
+ if (!blkdev_admin_capable(bdev))
return -EACCES;
mutex_lock(&bdev->bd_holder_lock);
@@ -527,11 +538,12 @@ static int blkdev_bszset(struct file *file, blk_mode_t mode,
{
// this one might be file_inode(file)->i_rdev - a rare valid
// use of file_inode() for those.
- dev_t dev = I_BDEV(file->f_mapping->host)->bd_dev;
+ struct block_device *bdev = I_BDEV(file->f_mapping->host);
+ dev_t dev = bdev->bd_dev;
struct file *excl_file;
int ret, n;
- if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN))
+ if (!blkdev_admin_capable(bdev))
return -EACCES;
if (!argp)
return -EINVAL;
---
base-commit: 0a88195dfe7ad750d8e0d9815e70515a03b270f1
change-id: 20261029-vstor-137668-block-let-container-root-set-the-block-size-70922fd9b2a5
Best regards,
--
Konstantin Khorenko,
Virtuozzo Linux Kernel Team
_______________________________________________
Devel mailing list
Devel@openvz.org
https://lists.openvz.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
next reply other threads:[~2026-10-29 16:01 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-10-29 16:00 Konstantin Khorenko [this message]
2026-10-29 16:04 ` no-reply
2026-10-29 16:06 ` Eva Kurchatova (Virtuozzo)
2026-10-29 16:10 ` Konstantin Khorenko
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20261029-vstor-137668-block-let-container-root-set-the-block-size-v3-1-c3fd7db3777c@virtuozzo.com \
--to=khorenko@virtuozzo.com \
--cc=devel@openvz.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.