c7c556f1e8
Refactor the logic for changing SELinux policy booleans in a similar manner to the refactoring of policy load, thereby reducing the size of the critical section when the policy write-lock is held and making it easier to convert the policy rwlock to RCU in the future. Instead of directly modifying the policydb in place, modify a copy and then swap it into place through a single pointer update. Only fully copy the portions of the policydb that are affected by boolean changes to avoid the full cost of a deep policydb copy. Introduce another level of indirection for the sidtab since changing booleans does not require updating the sidtab, unlike policy load. While we are here, create a common helper for notifying other kernel components and userspace of a policy change and call it from both security_set_bools() and selinux_policy_commit(). Based on an old (2004) patch by Kaigai Kohei [1] to convert the policy rwlock to RCU that was deferred at the time since it did not significantly improve performance and introduced complexity. Peter Enderborg later submitted a patch series to convert to RCU [2] that would have made changing booleans a much more expensive operation by requiring a full policydb_write();policydb_read(); sequence to deep copy the entire policydb and also had concerns regarding atomic allocations. This change is now simplified by the earlier work to encapsulate policy state in the selinux_policy struct and to refactor policy load. After this change, the last major obstacle to converting the policy rwlock to RCU is likely the sidtab live convert support. [1] https://lore.kernel.org/selinux/6e2f9128-e191-ebb3-0e87-74bfccb0767f@tycho.nsa.gov/ [2] https://lore.kernel.org/selinux/20180530141104.28569-1-peter.enderborg@sony.com/ Signed-off-by: Stephen Smalley <stephen.smalley.work@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Paul Moore <paul@paul-moore.com>
Linux kernel
============
There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.
In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``. The formatted documentation can also be read online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/
There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.
Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.