Documentation/admin-guide/binfmt-misc.rst

Kernel Support for miscellaneous Binary Formats (binfmt_misc)
=============================================================

This Kernel feature allows you to invoke almost (for restrictions see below)
every program by simply typing its name in the shell.
This includes for example compiled Java(TM), Python or Emacs programs.

To achieve this you must tell binfmt_misc which interpreter has to be invoked
with which binary. Binfmt_misc recognises the binary-type by matching some bytes
at the beginning of the file with a magic byte sequence (masking out specified
bits) you have supplied. Binfmt_misc can also recognise a filename extension
aka ``.com`` or ``.exe``.

First you must mount binfmt_misc::

	mount binfmt_misc -t binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc

To actually register a new binary type, you have to set up a string looking like
``:name:type:offset:magic:mask:interpreter:flags`` (where you can choose the
``:`` upon your needs) and echo it to ``/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register``.

Here is what the fields mean:

- ``name``
   is an identifier string. A new /proc file will be created with this
   name below ``/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc``; cannot contain slashes ``/`` for
   obvious reasons.
- ``type``
   is the type of recognition. Give ``M`` for magic, ``E`` for extension and
   ``B`` for a bpf-backed handler (see below).
- ``offset``
   is the offset of the magic/mask in the file, counted in bytes. This
   defaults to 0 if you omit it (i.e. you write ``:name:type::magic...``).
   Ignored when using filename extension matching.
- ``magic``
   is the byte sequence binfmt_misc is matching for. The magic string
   may contain hex-encoded characters like ``\x0a`` or ``\xA4``. Note that you
   must escape any NUL bytes; parsing halts at the first one. In a shell
   environment you might have to write ``\\x0a`` to prevent the shell from
   eating your ``\``.
   If you chose filename extension matching, this is the extension to be
   recognised (without the ``.``, the ``\x0a`` specials are not allowed).
   Extension    matching is case sensitive, and slashes ``/`` are not allowed!
- ``mask``
   is an (optional, defaults to all 0xff) mask. You can mask out some
   bits from matching by supplying a string like magic and as long as magic.
   The mask is anded with the byte sequence of the file. Note that you must
   escape any NUL bytes; parsing halts at the first one. Ignored when using
   filename extension matching.
- ``interpreter``
   is the program that should be invoked with the binary as first
   argument (specify the full path). For ``B`` entries this field
   carries the name of the bpf handler instead (see below).
- ``flags``
   is an optional field that controls several aspects of the invocation
   of the interpreter. It is a string of capital letters, each controls a
   certain aspect. The following flags are supported:

      ``P`` - preserve-argv[0]
            Legacy behavior of binfmt_misc is to overwrite
            the original argv[0] with the full path to the binary. When this
            flag is included, binfmt_misc will add an argument to the argument
            vector for this purpose, thus preserving the original ``argv[0]``.
            e.g. If your interp is set to ``/bin/foo`` and you run ``blah``
            (which is in ``/usr/local/bin``), then the kernel will execute
            ``/bin/foo`` with ``argv[]`` set to ``["/bin/foo", "/usr/local/bin/blah", "blah"]``.  The interp has to be aware of this so it can
            execute ``/usr/local/bin/blah``
            with ``argv[]`` set to ``["blah"]``.
      ``O`` - open-binary
	    Legacy behavior of binfmt_misc is to pass the full path
            of the binary to the interpreter as an argument. When this flag is
            included, binfmt_misc will open the file for reading and pass its
            descriptor into the auxilary vector with the key "AT_EXECFD", thus
            allowing the interpreter to execute non-readable binaries. This
            feature should be used with care - the interpreter has to be trusted
            not to emit the contents of the non-readable binary.
      ``C`` - credentials
            Currently, the behavior of binfmt_misc is to calculate
            the credentials and security token of the new process according to
            the interpreter. When this flag is included, these attributes are
            calculated according to the binary. It also implies the ``O`` flag.
            This feature should be used with care as the interpreter
            will run with root permissions when a setuid binary owned by root
            is run with binfmt_misc.
      ``F`` - fix binary
            The usual behaviour of binfmt_misc is to spawn the
	    binary lazily when the misc format file is invoked.  However,
	    this doesn't work very well in the face of mount namespaces and
	    changeroots, so the ``F`` mode opens the binary as soon as the
	    emulation is installed and uses the opened image to spawn the
	    emulator, meaning it is always available once installed,
	    regardless of how the environment changes.
      ``T`` - transparent
            Run the interpreter transparently. The binary is handed to
            the interpreter through ``AT_EXECFD`` (``T`` implies ``O``),
            the argument vector is left exactly as the caller built it
            and the kernel labels ``/proc/pid/exe`` with the binary
            instead of the interpreter. The interpreter has to load the
            binary from ``AT_EXECFD`` and follow the
            ``AT_FLAGS_TRANSPARENT_INTERP`` contract. Combining ``T``
            with ``P`` is rejected: transparency preserves the whole
            argument vector, argv[0] included.
      ``L`` - loader substitution
            Do not run the interpreter on the binary at all: load the
            binary itself as a fully native exec and substitute the
            interpreter for the loader named in the binary's
            ``PT_INTERP``. See the "Loader substitution" section
            below. ``L`` rejects ``T``, ``P``, ``O`` and ``C``;
            ``F`` composes.
      ``D`` - registered disabled
            The entry is created disabled instead of being matchable at
            once, and has to be enabled by writing ``1`` to its file
            before it dispatches anything. This splits a registration
            into creating the entry and activating it, leaving room to
            configure it in between - which is what a ``B`` entry that
            binds interpreters needs; see the bpf section below. The flag
            is spent on the registration and is not read back: what an
            entry file reports afterwards is whether it is enabled.


There are some restrictions:

 - the whole register string may not exceed 1920 characters
 - the magic must reside in the first 128 bytes of the file, i.e.
   offset+size(magic) has to be less than 128
 - the interpreter string may not exceed 127 characters
 - an interpreter used with ``C`` or ``L`` but without ``F`` has to be
   named by an absolute path. It is opened when the binary is executed, so
   a relative one would be resolved against the working directory of
   whoever runs the binary
 - the amount of pre-opened interpreters by ``F``, or bound to a ``B`` entry
   is limited by the ``/proc/sys/user/max_binfmt_misc_interpreters`` sysctl. A
   registration past the limit is refused with ``-ENOSPC``. This limits an
   unprivileged namespace pinning files. A nested namespace can raise only its
   own limit and every ancestor is charged too


To use binfmt_misc you have to mount it first. You can mount it with
``mount -t binfmt_misc none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc`` command, or you can add
a line ``none  /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc defaults 0 0`` to your
``/etc/fstab`` so it auto mounts on boot.

You may want to add the binary formats in one of your ``/etc/rc`` scripts during
boot-up. Read the manual of your init program to figure out how to do this
right.

Think about the order of adding entries! Later added entries are matched first!


A few examples (assumed you are in ``/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc``):

- enable support for em86 (like binfmt_em86, for Alpha AXP only)::

    echo ':i386:M::\x7fELF\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x03:\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xfe\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfb\xff\xff:/bin/em86:' > register
    echo ':i486:M::\x7fELF\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x06:\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xfe\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfb\xff\xff:/bin/em86:' > register

- enable support for packed DOS applications (pre-configured dosemu hdimages)::

    echo ':DEXE:M::\x0eDEX::/usr/bin/dosexec:' > register

- enable support for Windows executables using wine::

    echo ':DOSWin:M::MZ::/usr/local/bin/wine:' > register

For java support see Documentation/admin-guide/java.rst


You can enable/disable binfmt_misc or one binary type by echoing 0 (to disable)
or 1 (to enable) to ``/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/status`` or
``/proc/.../the_name``.
Catting the file tells you the current status of ``binfmt_misc/the_entry``.

You can remove one entry or all entries by echoing -1 to ``/proc/.../the_name``
or ``/proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/status``. A single entry can also be removed
by simply unlinking (``rm``) ``/proc/.../the_name``.


bpf-backed handlers
-------------------

With ``CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC_BPF`` both the matching and the interpreter
selection can be delegated to bpf programs. A handler is an instance of the
``binfmt_misc_ops`` struct_ops with a ``match`` and a ``load`` program and a
``name``. Once the struct_ops map is registered the handler can be activated
with a ``B`` entry that references it by name in the ``interpreter`` field
and carries neither offset, magic, nor mask::

    echo ':qemu:B::::my_handler:' > register

Both programs receive the ``linux_binprm`` of the binary and both can
sleep. The ``match`` program decides whether the handler applies: it is
consulted during the entry walk exactly like magic and extension matching,
in the same registration order with the same first-match-wins semantics.
Unlike static matching it is not limited to the prefetched first bytes of
the file in ``bprm->buf``: it can read the file, e.g. to parse ELF program
headers whose data sits at arbitrary offsets. It only decides, though: the
selection kfuncs below are rejected in it. The ``load`` program of the
matched handler then selects the interpreter: it can equally read the file
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. 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, and each one is charged against
``max_binfmt_misc_interpreters`` like any other binding. A write past either
limit is refused with ``-ENOSPC``.

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
interpreter and the binary, exactly like the optional argument of a ``#!``
interpreter line, e.g. for a handler that resolves ``$ORIGIN`` in a script's
``#!`` path and needs to preserve the argument that followed it.

The invocation flags a static entry fixes at registration - ``P``, ``C``,
``O``, ``T`` and ``L`` - are per-exec choices for a bpf handler, made by the
``load`` program with the ``bpf_binprm_set_flags()`` kfunc, so a single
handler can decide them differently for each binary it handles:

- ``BPF_BINPRM_PRESERVE_ARGV0`` keeps the caller's ``argv[0]`` (the ``P``
  flag).
- ``BPF_BINPRM_CREDENTIALS`` computes credentials from the binary (the ``C``
  flag), bounded to user namespaces that map the binary's owner just like
  any other setuid exec.
- ``BPF_BINPRM_EXECFD`` opens the binary on the interpreter's behalf and
  passes it through the ``AT_EXECFD`` aux vector entry (the ``O`` flag), so
  the interpreter can run binaries it could not open by path.
- ``BPF_BINPRM_TRANSPARENT`` runs the interpreter transparently (the ``T``
  flag): the binary is handed over through ``AT_EXECFD`` as
  with ``BPF_BINPRM_EXECFD``, but the argument vector is also left as the
  caller passed it. An interpreter that loads the binary from ``AT_EXECFD``
  then appears in ``argv[0]`` and ``/proc/pid/cmdline`` as a direct
  execution of the binary. ``BPF_BINPRM_PRESERVE_ARGV0`` and a staged
  interpreter argument are rejected in combination with it, just as ``P``
  is with ``T``. It also lets a handler
  run a binary passed as an inaccessible ``O_CLOEXEC`` file descriptor to
  ``execveat()``, which a path-splicing dispatch cannot: the interpreter
  has no path by which to open it.
- ``BPF_BINPRM_LOADER`` substitutes the interpreter for the binary's
  ``PT_INTERP`` and runs the binary as a fully native exec (the ``L``
  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`` 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
handler registered in the same user namespace as its binfmt_misc instance.
The entry keeps the handler alive; deleting the struct_ops map only prevents
new activations.


Transparent interpreters
------------------------

With the ``T`` flag or ``BPF_BINPRM_TRANSPARENT`` the dispatch is invisible
to the resulting process. The argument vector is left exactly as the caller
built it. The binary is passed through ``AT_EXECFD``. The kernel also labels
``/proc/pid/exe`` correctly. The binary's file is write-denied while the
process runs and the interpreter's is not, exactly as if the binary had been
executed directly. A transparent entry does not change how credentials are
derived. As
with any other entry, set*id bits of the binary are only honored with ``C`` (or
``BPF_BINPRM_CREDENTIALS``).

The interpreter has to be built for this contract. The kernel announces it
with ``AT_FLAGS_TRANSPARENT_INTERP`` in the ``AT_FLAGS`` aux vector entry
next to ``AT_EXECFD``. The argument vector belongs entirely to the program,
nothing was spliced in, so the interpreter doesn't consume arguments and
simply loads the program from the descriptor. The bit is also the loader's
license to finish the identity. After mapping the program it may retarget the
``AT_PHDR``/``AT_ENTRY``/``AT_BASE`` entries of ``/proc/pid/auxv`` and the
code/data statistics markers via one ``PR_SET_MM_MAP`` which completes
what attaching debuggers observe.  What remains visibly different from a
direct execution is the address space layout. The interpreter occupies
the main-image position and the program lives in the mmap region.


Loader substitution
-------------------

The ``L`` flag turns the execution model around. Instead of running the
registered interpreter with the binary as its payload the kernel loads
the matched binary itself as the main image and substitutes the registered
interpreter for the loader named in the binary's ``PT_INTERP``.

Because the exec is native, there is no dispatch identity to
reconstruct and no contract the substitute has to implement. A stock
dynamic loader works unchanged. The argument vector is untouched,
credentials and ``AT_SECURE`` derive from the binary, there is no
``AT_EXECFD`` and no marker in the aux vector, the binary sits in the
main-image slot with the native brk placement so ``/proc/pid/maps``,
core dumps and perf mmap records have the native shape, and the
identity is already complete when ``PTRACE_EVENT_EXEC`` stops the
tracee. So launching under a debugger works, not just attaching. ``L``
entries are for ELF binaries of a native architecture. Foreign-arch
emulation and non-ELF payloads remain the domain of the classic and
transparent modes.

The override applies when the format that finally claims the file is
ELF with a ``PT_INTERP``. A matched binary without one or an
interpreter-less ``ET_DYN`` drops the override and runs natively. A file
claimed by another format - a ``#!`` script, say - is handled by that
format as if the entry had not matched. ``L`` is therefore not an
enforcement mechanism: it decides how a binary that asks for a loader is
run, it does not guarantee that everything matching the entry runs under
the substitute. A format that cannot consume the override at all instead
refuses the exec with ``ENOEXEC`` before the point of no return.

A wrong-architecture ELF fails the whole exec with ``ENOEXEC`` exactly
as if no entry had matched. A substitute that is not ELF of the right
architecture fails with ``ELIBBAD``. The usual ``PT_INTERP`` sanity
checks on the binary still apply. But the segment's content is otherwise
irrelevant.

``L`` rejects the classic-dispatch flags ``T``, ``P``, ``O`` and ``C``
at registration. ``F`` composes and is valuable: with it the substitute
is opened at registration time, so later mount namespace or path changes
cannot redirect it. Without it the substitute is opened when the binary
is executed, and the path is resolved in the mount namespace and root of
whoever runs the binary, which is why it has to be absolute. As with
``C``, register only trusted interpreters. The substituted loader runs
with credentials derived from the binary.


Hints
-----

If you want to pass special arguments to your interpreter, you can
write a wrapper script for it.
See :doc:`Documentation/admin-guide/java.rst <./java>` for an example.

Your interpreter should NOT look in the PATH for the filename; the kernel
passes it the full filename (or the file descriptor) to use.  Using ``$PATH`` can
cause unexpected behaviour and can be a security hazard.


Richard Günther <rguenth@tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de>