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diff --git a/docs/tools/virtfs-proxy-helper.rst b/docs/tools/virtfs-proxy-helper.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cdeedf --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/tools/virtfs-proxy-helper.rst @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +QEMU 9p virtfs proxy filesystem helper +====================================== + +Synopsis +-------- + +**virtfs-proxy-helper** [*OPTIONS*] + +Description +----------- + +Pass-through security model in QEMU 9p server needs root privilege to do +few file operations (like chown, chmod to any mode/uid:gid). There are two +issues in pass-through security model: + +- TOCTTOU vulnerability: Following symbolic links in the server could + provide access to files beyond 9p export path. + +- Running QEMU with root privilege could be a security issue. + +To overcome above issues, following approach is used: A new filesystem +type 'proxy' is introduced. Proxy FS uses chroot + socket combination +for securing the vulnerability known with following symbolic links. +Intention of adding a new filesystem type is to allow qemu to run +in non-root mode, but doing privileged operations using socket IO. + +Proxy helper (a stand alone binary part of qemu) is invoked with +root privileges. Proxy helper chroots into 9p export path and creates +a socket pair or a named socket based on the command line parameter. +QEMU and proxy helper communicate using this socket. QEMU proxy fs +driver sends filesystem request to proxy helper and receives the +response from it. + +The proxy helper is designed so that it can drop root privileges except +for the capabilities needed for doing filesystem operations. + +Options +------- + +The following options are supported: + +.. program:: virtfs-proxy-helper + +.. option:: -h + + Display help and exit + +.. option:: -p, --path PATH + + Path to export for proxy filesystem driver + +.. option:: -f, --fd SOCKET_ID + + Use given file descriptor as socket descriptor for communicating with + qemu proxy fs drier. Usually a helper like libvirt will create + socketpair and pass one of the fds as parameter to this option. + +.. option:: -s, --socket SOCKET_FILE + + Creates named socket file for communicating with qemu proxy fs driver + +.. option:: -u, --uid UID + + uid to give access to named socket file; used in combination with -g. + +.. option:: -g, --gid GID + + gid to give access to named socket file; used in combination with -u. + +.. option:: -n, --nodaemon + + Run as a normal program. By default program will run in daemon mode |