[pve-devel] Running KVM as root is a security issue

[Eric Blevins]

Having only PCI passthrough VMs running as root would be a huge improvement.
Maybe cgroups could be used to reduce the risk.

Exit scripts could be suid if needed.
An exploted VM could potentially use the suid pve-bridgedown script to
destroy bridges of other VMs.

Long term I think a better idea is needed.

The exit scripts could simply notify some other privlidged process
that they are shutting down.
Privlidged process would then verify that VM is down and do whatever
cleanup is necessary.




On Mon, Jul 27, 2015 at 10:07 AM, Alexandre DERUMIER
<aderumier at odiso.com> wrote:
>>>Yes, that much I've tested, too. I'm worried about the shutdown scripts
>>>though (bridgedown). They might lack permissions if qemu doesn't keep a
>>>privileged parent process around for those.
>
> I think that pci passthrough need root access too. (maybe not with vfio).
>
> Not sure about disks with /dev/ mapping ?
>
>
>
> ----- Mail original -----
> De: "Wolfgang Bumiller" <w.bumiller at proxmox.com>
> À: "Eric Blevins" <ericlb100 at gmail.com>
> Cc: "pve-devel" <pve-devel at pve.proxmox.com>
> Envoyé: Lundi 27 Juillet 2015 15:53:00
> Objet: Re: [pve-devel] Running KVM as root is a security issue
>
>> A patch exists to prevent a crash when a socket cannot be opened.
>> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2015-05/msg00577.html
>
> Included in the current 2.4 devel build.
>
>> I've done some experimenting. If I take the KVM command as generated
>> by Proxmox and simply add "-runas nobody" the VM starts up and runs
>> without a problem.
>
> Yes, that much I've tested, too. I'm worried about the shutdown scripts
> though (bridgedown). They might lack permissions if qemu doesn't keep a
> privileged parent process around for those.
>
> Ideally the VM can be started directly as a user, though, rather than
> using the -runas switch. That will be some work though.
>
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