[Bug 223138] null(4) has DIOCSKERNELDUMP ioctl

bugzilla-noreply at freebsd.org bugzilla-noreply at freebsd.org
Fri Oct 20 21:25:04 UTC 2017


https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=223138

            Bug ID: 223138
           Summary: null(4) has DIOCSKERNELDUMP ioctl
           Product: Base System
           Version: 11.1-RELEASE
          Hardware: Any
                OS: Any
            Status: New
          Severity: Affects Only Me
          Priority: ---
         Component: kern
          Assignee: freebsd-bugs at FreeBSD.org
          Reporter: freebsd-bugs at maxsi.org

The /dev/null device unusually has a DIOCSKERNELDUMP ioctl that exists on no
other operating system. This ioctl controls kernel crash dumping. What is this
feature doing in this very unexpected place? I haven't checked but I assume the
ioctl requires administrative privileges to use but /dev/null is a strange home
for it. I don't believe this has any security implications. It just
unnecessarily expose attack surface since /dev/null objects can commonly be
given to sandboxed environments and is generally considered a certainly benign
object.

DIOCSKERNELDUMP is not documented in null(4) but documented in dumpon(8). At
the very least it should be documented in null(4).

I would advocate for exposing the feature through a new kernel interface for
this purpose (or another better suited home) rather than null(4), and then
removing (perhaps in time) the feature from null(4).

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