binfmt_misc: document interpreters bound by a 'B' entry

Describe the interpreters a 'B' entry can bind while it is disabled, what
binding a file buys over naming a path the exec resolves, how a load
program picks one, that an entry binds at most 100 interpreters, and
that enabling the entry seals the set.

Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260730-work-binfmt_misc-preopen-v1-9-4a0b0da71f16@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <brauner@kernel.org>
This commit is contained in:
Christian Brauner
2026-07-30 15:34:11 +02:00
parent 7404b1472b
commit 1646e99277

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@@ -195,9 +195,62 @@ and derive the interpreter from the binary's location. It selects the
interpreter by calling the ``bpf_binprm_set_interp()`` kfunc with an
absolute path and returning ``0``. A match is committed: a failing
``load`` fails the exec with its error instead of falling through to later
entries; ``-ENOEXEC`` lets the remaining binary formats have a go. The
interpreter is opened with the credentials of the task doing the exec,
exactly as a statically registered interpreter would be.
entries; ``-ENOEXEC`` lets the remaining binary formats have a go. A path
selected this way is opened with the credentials of the task doing the
exec, exactly as a statically registered interpreter without ``F`` would
be.
An entry can instead bind the interpreters its handler may use, so that no
path is resolved at exec time at all. An entry registered with ``D`` is not
matchable yet, which is what leaves it open to being given them, one
``+name path`` write at a time::
echo ':qemu:B::::my_handler:D' > register
echo '+aarch64 /usr/bin/qemu-aarch64' > qemu
echo '+arm /usr/bin/qemu-arm' > qemu
echo 1 > qemu
Each path is opened during its write, in the writing process's context and
with the credentials the entry file was opened with, exactly the way ``F``
pre-opens a static entry's interpreter; the paths must be absolute. The
path is everything past the first space, so there is nothing it cannot
express, and no interpreter has to fit in a register string. An entry
binds at most 100 interpreters; a write past that is refused with
``-ENOSPC``. To bind a file that has no path of its own - already
unlinked, a ``memfd``, or reachable only in another mount namespace -
open it and write ``/proc/self/fd/N``.
The ``load`` program then selects one per exec by name with the
``bpf_binprm_select_interp()`` kfunc, and every exec runs a clone of the
file that was opened. The path decides which file is bound and nothing
else: it is not resolved again, in any namespace, so what it holds later -
or what it holds in the namespace of whoever runs the binary - no longer
decides anything.
Enabling the entry ends this. Its interpreters are read at exec time with
nothing but a reference held on the entry, so an entry that has ever been
matchable can never have its set changed again: the first ``1`` seals it,
from then on ``+`` is refused with ``-EBUSY``, and an entry registered
without ``D`` is sealed from the start. Binding a name twice is refused
with ``-EEXIST``.
Selection is by name so that the configuration and the program need not
agree on an order, and so that a handler is not tied to where a distribution
puts its interpreters. A name is a single word of printable ASCII, at most
32 characters; a name the entry did not bind gives the program ``-ENOENT``,
which it can act on or return. The interpreter runs under the path it was
registered under, and the entry reports what it bound::
$ cat /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/qemu
enabled
bpf my_handler
bpf-interpreter aarch64 /usr/bin/qemu-aarch64
bpf-interpreter arm /usr/bin/qemu-arm
flags:
The path reported is the one the interpreter was bound under, which named
the file at that moment; it is not re-resolved, so it is a record of what
was bound rather than a promise about what that path holds now.
The ``load`` program can also pass a single argument to the interpreter with
the ``bpf_binprm_set_interp_arg()`` kfunc. It is inserted between the
@@ -234,9 +287,10 @@ handler can decide them differently for each binary it handles:
flag). It excludes the other flags and a staged interpreter argument.
Because these are program choices, a ``B`` entry carries no invocation
flags in the register string; ``F`` (pre-open a fixed interpreter) has no
meaning for it. The registration directive ``D`` is the exception: it
decides how the entry starts out, not how the interpreter is invoked.
flags in the register string; ``F`` has none to spell for it either, since
the interpreters it binds already pre-open what ``F`` would. The
registration directive ``D`` is the exception: it decides how the entry
starts out, not how the interpreter is invoked.
A handler is looked up only in the user namespace the struct_ops map was
registered in. Handlers are not inherited, so an entry can only reference a