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Linux: support RESOLVE_NO_XDEV when openat2 is unavailable #423
Description
TL;DR: On Linux, cap-primitives falls back to its manual path resolver when
openat2() is unavailable, but the fallback cannot enforce
RESOLVE_NO_XDEV. Downstream users therefore cannot safely reject mount
crossings on systems where openat2() returns ENOSYS.
Context: This surfaced through bootc's open_dir_noxdev() usage under QEMU
linux-user, but the missing behavior is general and is not specific to bootc or
QEMU. The downstream report is
bootc-dev/bootc#1481.
Current behavior
cap-primitives/src/rustix/linux/fs/open_impl.rs uses openat2() for its fast
path and falls back to manually::open() when the syscall is unavailable. The
manual resolver preserves capability containment and resolves symlinks one
component at a time, but it has no NO_XDEV policy.
As a result, cap-std-ext implements open_dir_noxdev() with a direct
openat2() call. It handles EXDEV, but propagates ENOSYS instead of using a
capability-safe fallback.
Reproduction
| Component | Value |
|---|---|
| Host and VM | x86_64, Fedora 44 |
| Container | aarch64 Fedora bootc |
| Affected emulator | QEMU linux-user 8.2.9 |
| Working emulator | QEMU linux-user 10.2.2 |
| cap-primitives | 4.0.3 |
| cap-std-ext | 5.1.2 |
With QEMU 8.2.9 registered through binfmt_misc:
$ podman run --rm --arch arm64 \
quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:latest \
bootc container lint
error: Linting: Function not implemented (os error 38)The trace reports unsupported AArch64 syscall 437 immediately before the
failure. That syscall is openat2, same image passes under QEMU 10.2.2,
which implements openat2.
Required behavior
The fallback must reject crossing any mount, including same filesystem bind
mounts and mounts reached through symlinks, while retaining the manual
resolver's containment and race-resistance properties.
A final st_dev comparison is insufficient because a bind mount may have the
same device and inode as its source. Checking only the final descriptor is also
insufficient: an intermediate component or symlink may cross a mount even when
the final component is not a mount root. Each opened component must therefore
be checked before symlink interpretation or descent.
If reliable mount information is unavailable, the operation should return an
explicit unsupported error rather than silently perform a normal open.
Proposed direction
- Keep
openat2()as the fast path and addRESOLVE_NO_XDEVwhen requested. - On
ENOSYS, reuse the existing manual component resolver rather than add a
separate path walker. - Check every newly opened descriptor for a mount crossing before following a
symlink or descending into that component. - Return
EXDEVfor a detected crossing and fail closed when mount identity
cannot be determined reliably. - Expose this as an existing-directory operation through the public layer the
maintainers consider appropriate, such ascap-fs-ext. Existing opens
should remain unchanged when the policy is not requested.
STATX_ATTR_MOUNT_ROOT appears suitable for the fallback, under QEMU 8.2.9 it
correctly identified all 153 mount points visible in /proc/self/mountinfo, a
same filesystem bind mount, and descriptors held across mount and detach
operations. STATX_MNT_ID was not reliable in this environment because QEMU
reported the field as available but returned zero for tested paths.
The initial API should be limited to opening existing directories, applying a
general OpenOptions flag to effectful operations such as truncation would
require a broader design because validating the result after opening is too
late.
References
- Downstream report: Bootc container lint fails on ARM64 containers via QEMU user-mode emulation (errno 38) bootc-dev/bootc#1481
openat2(2): https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/openat2.2.htmlstatx(2): https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/statx.2.html- cap-std-ext API: https://docs.rs/cap-std-ext/latest/cap_std_ext/dirext/trait.CapStdExtDirExt.html
Activity
cgwalters commentedon Aug 25, 2026
cap-std-ext is maintained in https://github.com/coreos/cap-std-ext/ not here.
amnabbouti commentedon Aug 25, 2026
Thanks, yes, understood, i mentioned cap-std-ext only as downstream context,
not as something maintained in this repository.
The issue I’m trying to raise here is the lower level one: on Linux,
cap-primitives can preserve containment through the manual resolver when
openat2() is unavailable, but there is currently no equivalent way to preserve
RESOLVE_NO_XDEV semantics in that fallback path.
Would a PR for that primitive be appropriate in this
repository, or do you consider NO_XDEV support outside the scope of cap-std /
cap-primitives?
sunfishcode commentedon Sep 3, 2026
I'm not aware of cap-std providing a way to use
RESOLVE_NO_XDEVbehavior, with or withoutopenat2.cgwalters commentedon Sep 3, 2026
Yeah what this is asking for I think is basically to extend the fallback path walking code (esp in cap-primitives) to support more scenarios. Seems doable I guess, but then now a lot hinges on #426
amnabbouti commentedon Sep 6, 2026
Yes that’s what I was proposing, extending the existing fallback path walker with opt in NO_XDEV behavior.
And I see how #426 changes the broader context for this now.