[PATCH][WIP] Make vfs_acl_xattr use hash of the posix ACL

simo idra at samba.org
Fri Oct 12 12:05:56 MDT 2012


On Fri, 2012-10-12 at 17:12 +0200, Volker Lendecke wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 10:26:15PM +1100, Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> > On Fri, 2012-10-12 at 13:11 +0200, Christian Ambach wrote:
> > > Hi Andrew,
> > > 
> > > On 10/09/2012 01:58 PM, Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> > > > This patch (still a work in progress, as I know it fails some tests)
> > > > is what I've been talking about for months, and which I got VFS
> > > > changes in (almost - one small change in this patch) into 4.0.0rc1.
> > > >
> > > > The idea is simple, have the ACL modules (the posix ACL modules in
> > > > particular) provide a blob form of the ACL, and then hash that,
> > > > rather than an NT ACL that might change if our ACL mapping code
> > > > changes.
> > > 
> > > I am not sure I am getting the problem you are trying to solve here.
> > > What is the benefit of adding another representation of an ACL that is
> > > just intermediate?
> > > 
> > > Can you give some more explanations that go further than the commit
> > > message in your attachment?
> > 
> > This goes back to a discussion that we have had on and off over a few
> > months.
> > 
> > What I'm working on is an improved implementation of the hash in
> > vfs_acl_common.c.  The new hash will be of the 'system' ACL, whatever
> > that is, rather than the NT ACL it maps to.
> 
> Why is hashing the NT ACL not sufficient here?

I think Andrew is concerned that if we change the way we map from NT ACL
-> Posix ACL that we will fail the hash check and will start considering
all ACLs on file as 'modified' and therefore throw away the NT ACL and
recalculate back from the Posix ACL, even though no ACL changed on the
file but is the mapping that changed.

However I have to ask: *if* we do indeed change the mapping so that the
hash check fail is it really bad to fail the check ?

I mean if we change the mapping it means we did something wrong, so if
we keep the NT ACL unchanged and not fail the hash check it means we
will not show the user that the ACL really is different (from our new
understanding of how it should be represented).

The problem has 2 sides:
On the one hand we want to keep ACLs as close as possible to what
Windows clients send us, I guess that's why Andrew wants to consider
them authoritative and hash them.
On the other hand though, the authoritative ACL from the file access POV
is the one on the File System as that's what the kernel enforce.
And if we consider the one on the FS the authoritative one, then it can
be argued that it is indeed a good idea to break the mapping if the
Posix ACL -> NT ACL mapping changes and causes the hash check to fail.

So which PoV should we subscribe to in the Filesystem ?
Or did I fall for a false dichotomy ?

Simo.

-- 
Simo Sorce
Samba Team GPL Compliance Officer <simo at samba.org>
Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat, Inc. <simo at redhat.com>



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