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Daniel Borkmann b707068e0e
bpf: Verify signed loader metadata at load time
A signed gen_loader program carries the programs, maps and relocations
it installs in a metadata array map. The loader instructions are covered
by the PKCS#7 signature, but the metadata map is not: Today the loader
compares the map contents from within BPF against a hash baked into its
(signed) instructions, using the kernel-cached map hash. The kernel
itself never actually attests that the metadata the loader installs is
the metadata that was signed.

This split is the core of the long-standing objection to the BPF signing
scheme from the LSM / integrity side: the integrity check of a light
skeleton only completes once the loader program runs, that is, after the
security_bpf_prog_load() hook, so at admission time an LSM observes a
program whose payload has not yet been verified. Auditing the chain
link is also not a purely cryptographic operation: whoever signs or
reviews an lskel has to disassemble the loader's preamble to convince
themselves that the embedded hash check is present and correct [0][1].
Two acceptable fixes were identified in those threads: Complete the
integrity check before the admission hook fires, or add a second hook
that collects the verification result after the loader ran [2]. Covering
both the loader and its maps directly with the PKCS#7 signature is what
Blaise Boscaccy's patchsets proposed in several forms. Let's implement
the former, without growing the UAPI, and in particular as a single
unified scheme where the signature spans the raw bytes rather than
derived hashes.

A signed loader binds its metadata map(s) through the existing fd_array,
and an exclusive map is already bound to a program digest (excl_prog_hash).
So when a signature is present, collect the exclusive maps from fd_array
and append their frozen contents to the instructions before verification:
The signature now covers insns || metadata_0 || metadata_1 || [...] in
the fd_array order, and verification completes in bpf_check(), once the
fd_array maps are resolved into used_maps, before the LSM admission hook
and the rest of verification. A program is either BPF_SIG_UNSIGNED or
BPF_SIG_VERIFIED, with nothing in between. While folding the fd_array
maps, a non-exclusive map bound to a signed program is rejected, so every
map folded into the signature is exclusive. A signed loader that fails
to cover its metadata thus does not load, and BPF_SIG_VERIFIED always
means the instructions and every exclusive map are authentic. The maps
must be frozen so the hashed bytes cannot change before the loader runs;
the map <-> program digest binding is enforced by the verifier for every
used map. Binding maps through fd_array_cnt makes the verifier resolve
and excl-check them (excl_prog_sha vs prog->digest) before it would
otherwise compute the digest, so compute prog->digest up front in
bpf_check(), over the unmodified instructions the signature covers, for
a load that folds metadata.

Unsigned programs are not affected by the signature path; for them the
LSM admission hook merely moves below fd_array resolution, with minimal
bounded work in between. Note, signed loaders generated by older libbpf/
bpftool versions need to be regenerated; some of the recent fixes we've
had on the signed loader side require the latter already to close gaps.

Finally, some remarks around the security_bpf_prog_load() placement
given there was discussion on whether a new hook is needed or the existing
security_bpf_prog() hook should be reused [3]: For a new hook it would
mean that just for loading a single BPF program it has to pass through
four layers of LSM hooks:

  1) security_bpf (cmd=PROG_LOAD): for gating various bpf subcmds
  2) security_bpf_prog_load: historical admission hook (CAP/token,
     prog_type, attach point), pre-verification
  3) security_bpf_prog_verify_signature: newly asked admission hook,
     same role as 2), plus the BPF signature verdict
  4) security_bpf_prog: gate handing the prog fd back to userspace,
     verification done & signature verified

The use-cases of 2) and 3) conflate, thus BPF community prefers to just
keep a total of 3 LSM hooks (as-is today): 3) makes 2) incoherent given
they are the /same class/ of hook, that is, access-control admission on
the load and split only by _what_ they can see. Worse, with the split,
for a signed BPF program security_bpf_prog_load 2) admits a program whose
signature has not been checked, so a policy gating at 2) is structurally
unable to express "admit only verified" and every such policy is forced
onto 3) *anyway*. In other words, one doesn't get two complementary hooks,
but rather, one real admission hook aka 3) plus a now-degraded /legacy/
hook 2) that can't answer the question operators actually want to ask.

Reusing security_bpf_prog() 4) for admission is no alternative either:
it fires only after the entire verifier (and JIT) pipeline ran, so
denying a not-yet-verified program at that point burns exactly the
work a denial is supposed to avoid, and by then the program has an id
assigned and the kallsyms/perf/audit load events fired. Policies are
free to also consume the signature verdict at 4), but admission control
belongs into security_bpf_prog_load(). Hence the latter remains the only
admission hook, merely moved past signature verification; with moving
large allocations further down into the BPF verifier, there is now only
minimal work between the old and new location: The preparation work in
bpf_check() is reordered such that only the minimally necessary setup
happens up front: Allocating the env, initializing the verifier log and
resolving the fd_array that a signed BPF metadata map needs. The worst
case allocation up until security_bpf_prog_load() is ~90K which is the
env itself (~54K) plus the continuous fd_array cache (at most 32K). The
insn_aux_data array is moved into a later stage in the verification.

Signed-off-by: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/2f71d6c03698eb17d51f7247efde777627ee578a.camel@HansenPartnership.com [0]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/ecf0521ed302db672672ebfbc670ecfba36a6e00.camel@HansenPartnership.com [1]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/88703f00d5b7a779728451008626efa45e42db3d.camel@HansenPartnership.com [2]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/DJOFY21DYUI4.19WKQ3NPZ4H5R@gmail.com [3]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20260708075343.358712-3-daniel@iogearbox.net
Signed-off-by: Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi <memxor@gmail.com>
History 2026-07-08 20:04:40 +02:00
arch s390/bpf: Replace ly instruction with llgf 2026-07-07 18:09:42 +02:00
block block: handle REQ_OP_ZONE_APPEND in __bio_integrity_action 2026-06-24 06:53:25 -06:00
certs treewide: fix indentation and whitespace in Kconfig files 2026-05-28 21:24:42 -07:00
crypto mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
Documentation docs/bpf: Document BPF_STRICT_BUILD=0 to tolerate test build failures 2026-07-07 18:09:39 +02:00
drivers Split <linux/mod_devicetable.h> in per subsystem headers 2026-07-02 20:54:26 -10:00
fs fscrypt fixes for 7.2 2026-06-27 09:20:16 -07:00
include bpf: Verify signed loader metadata at load time 2026-07-08 20:04:40 +02:00
init mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
io_uring io_uring-7.2-20260625 2026-06-25 09:53:31 -07:00
ipc kernel-7.2-rc1.misc 2026-06-15 03:05:50 +05:30
kernel bpf: Verify signed loader metadata at load time 2026-07-08 20:04:40 +02:00
lib bootconfig: fix NULL-pointer arithmetic in xbc_snprint_cmdline() 2026-07-01 08:08:27 +09:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Add modern form of the LGPL-2.1 tags to the usage guide section 2025-10-22 07:58:19 +02:00
mm block-7.2-20260625 2026-06-25 09:56:47 -07:00
net Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/bpf/bpf 7.2-rc2 2026-07-03 19:15:35 +02:00
rust Rust changes for v7.2 (addendum) 2026-06-24 15:11:08 -07:00
samples tracing/events: Fix to check the simple_tsk_fn creation 2026-06-30 23:58:19 +09:00
scripts Second round of Kbuild changes for 7.2 2026-06-25 09:06:12 -07:00
security bpf: Reject BPF_MAP_TYPE_INODE_STORAGE creation if BPF LSM is uninitialized 2026-06-30 16:31:56 +02:00
sound Replace <linux/mod_devicetable.h> by more specific <linux/device-id/*.h> (c files) 2026-07-03 07:38:17 +02:00
tools tools/resolve_btfids: Include libsubcmd headers directly from source tree 2026-07-08 01:12:59 -07:00
usr kbuild: uapi: also test UAPI headers against C++ compilers 2026-03-25 13:24:42 +01:00
virt s390: 2026-06-25 10:21:13 -07:00
.clang-format clang-format: fix formatting of guard() and scoped_guard() statements 2026-05-28 21:24:41 -07:00
.clippy.toml rust: bump Clippy's MSRV and clean incompatible_msrv allows 2026-04-07 09:51:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.editorconfig editorconfig: add rst extension 2026-01-26 19:07:09 -08:00
.get_maintainer.ignore .get_maintainer.ignore: add myself 2026-04-02 16:48:25 +02:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore SPDX patches for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-22 12:06:22 -07:00
.mailmap MAINTAINERS: Update Jason Wang's email address 2026-06-29 19:09:00 -07:00
.pylintrc docs: Move the python libraries to tools/lib/python 2025-11-18 09:22:40 -07:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
Kbuild checksyscalls: move instance functionality into generic code 2026-04-05 09:21:32 +02:00
Kconfig io_uring: Rename KConfig to Kconfig 2025-02-19 14:53:27 -07:00
MAINTAINERS Including fixes from netfilter and batman-adv. 2026-07-02 06:01:12 -10:00
Makefile Linux 7.2-rc1 2026-06-28 12:01:31 -07:00
README docs: add AI Coding Assistants documentation 2026-01-06 14:55:06 -07:00

Linux kernel
============

The Linux kernel is the core of any Linux operating system. It manages hardware,
system resources, and provides the fundamental services for all other software.

Quick Start
-----------

* Report a bug: See Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst
* Get the latest kernel: https://kernel.org
* Build the kernel: See Documentation/admin-guide/quickly-build-trimmed-linux.rst
* Join the community: https://lore.kernel.org/

Essential Documentation
-----------------------

All users should be familiar with:

* Building requirements: Documentation/process/changes.rst
* Code of Conduct: Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst
* License: See COPYING

Documentation can be built with make htmldocs or viewed online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/


Who Are You?
============

Find your role below:

* New Kernel Developer - Getting started with kernel development
* Academic Researcher - Studying kernel internals and architecture
* Security Expert - Hardening and vulnerability analysis
* Backport/Maintenance Engineer - Maintaining stable kernels
* System Administrator - Configuring and troubleshooting
* Maintainer - Leading subsystems and reviewing patches
* Hardware Vendor - Writing drivers for new hardware
* Distribution Maintainer - Packaging kernels for distros
* AI Coding Assistant - LLMs and AI-powered development tools


For Specific Users
==================

New Kernel Developer
--------------------

Welcome! Start your kernel development journey here:

* Getting Started: Documentation/process/development-process.rst
* Your First Patch: Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
* Coding Style: Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
* Build System: Documentation/kbuild/index.rst
* Development Tools: Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
* Kernel Hacking Guide: Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst
* Core APIs: Documentation/core-api/index.rst

Academic Researcher
-------------------

Explore the kernel's architecture and internals:

* Researcher Guidelines: Documentation/process/researcher-guidelines.rst
* Memory Management: Documentation/mm/index.rst
* Scheduler: Documentation/scheduler/index.rst
* Networking Stack: Documentation/networking/index.rst
* Filesystems: Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
* RCU (Read-Copy Update): Documentation/RCU/index.rst
* Locking Primitives: Documentation/locking/index.rst
* Power Management: Documentation/power/index.rst

Security Expert
---------------

Security documentation and hardening guides:

* Security Documentation: Documentation/security/index.rst
* LSM Development: Documentation/security/lsm-development.rst
* Self Protection: Documentation/security/self-protection.rst
* Reporting Vulnerabilities: Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst
* CVE Procedures: Documentation/process/cve.rst
* Embargoed Hardware Issues: Documentation/process/embargoed-hardware-issues.rst
* Security Features: Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst

Backport/Maintenance Engineer
-----------------------------

Maintain and stabilize kernel versions:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* Backporting Guide: Documentation/process/backporting.rst
* Applying Patches: Documentation/process/applying-patches.rst
* Subsystem Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git for Maintainers: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

System Administrator
--------------------

Configure, tune, and troubleshoot Linux systems:

* Admin Guide: Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Sysctl Tuning: Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/index.rst
* Tracing/Debugging: Documentation/trace/index.rst
* Performance Security: Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst
* Hardware Monitoring: Documentation/hwmon/index.rst

Maintainer
----------

Lead kernel subsystems and manage contributions:

* Maintainer Handbook: Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
* Pull Requests: Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst
* Managing Patches: Documentation/maintainer/modifying-patches.rst
* Rebasing and Merging: Documentation/maintainer/rebasing-and-merging.rst
* Development Process: Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst
* Maintainer Entry Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git Configuration: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

Hardware Vendor
---------------

Write drivers and support new hardware:

* Driver API Guide: Documentation/driver-api/index.rst
* Driver Model: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/driver.rst
* Device Drivers: Documentation/driver-api/infrastructure.rst
* Bus Types: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/bus.rst
* Device Tree Bindings: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/
* Power Management: Documentation/driver-api/pm/index.rst
* DMA API: Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst

Distribution Maintainer
-----------------------

Package and distribute the kernel:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* ABI Documentation: Documentation/ABI/README
* Kernel Configuration: Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.rst
* Module Signing: Documentation/admin-guide/module-signing.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Tainted Kernels: Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst

AI Coding Assistant
-------------------

CRITICAL: If you are an LLM or AI-powered coding assistant, you MUST read and
follow the AI coding assistants documentation before contributing to the Linux
kernel:

* Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst

This documentation contains essential requirements about licensing, attribution,
and the Developer Certificate of Origin that all AI tools must comply with.


Communication and Support
=========================

* Mailing Lists: https://lore.kernel.org/
* IRC: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net
* Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/
* MAINTAINERS file: Lists subsystem maintainers and mailing lists
* Email Clients: Documentation/process/email-clients.rst