[PATCH] kexec: restore functionality to preserve fd xattrs for uncompressed kernel images

[Alejandro Hernandez]

On 5/19/2026 3:41 AM, Simon Horman wrote:
> On Thu, May 07, 2026 at 09:54:17PM +0000, Alejandro Hernandez wrote:
>> Since commit 714fa115 xattrs attached to a kernel image file (such as IMA
>> signatures) are not being preserved, do_kexec_file_load() was modified to use
>> memfd_create() which now passes an anonymous file descriptor to
>> kexec_file_load(). This change eliminated the filesystem inode identity of the
>> original kernel file, hence attributes are no longer visible to the kernel IMA
>> appraisal handler during kexec_file_load, causing IMA policy enforcement to fail
>> even for validly signed kernel images.
>>
>> This patch attempts to restore such behavior although, only does it for
>> uncompressed kernel images. To do this, we first figure out if the image file is
>> compressed or not and call each method accordingly.
>>
>> Compressed images continue to use memfd and cannot carry forward the original fd
>> security attributes, since their decompressed bytes do not match the signed
>> artifact. Proper handling of compressed images with IMA would require either
>> signing the decompressed artifact or kernel-side support for decompression
>> within the kexec_file_load path.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Alejandro Hernandez Samaniego <alhe at linux.microsoft.com>
> Hi Alejandro,
>
> Thanks for the patch.
>
> Overall this looks good to me. But I'm wondering if you could spin a v2
> to address a minor code-style issue I have noted inline.

Hey Simon,

Thanks for the review, sure thing, I will send a v2


Alejandro


>
>> ---
>>   kexec/kexec.c | 42 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
>>   1 file changed, 35 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/kexec/kexec.c b/kexec/kexec.c
>> index 08edfca..a388762 100644
>> --- a/kexec/kexec.c
>> +++ b/kexec/kexec.c
>> @@ -1328,17 +1328,41 @@ static int do_kexec_file_load(int fileind, int argc, char **argv,
>>   
>>   	kernel = argv[fileind];
>>   
>> -	/* slurp in the input kernel */
>> +        /* Hold original fd with its xattrs */
>> +	kernel_fd = open(kernel, O_RDONLY);
>> +	if (kernel_fd == -1) {
>> +		fprintf(stderr, "Failed to open file %s:%s\n", kernel,
>> +				strerror(errno));
>> +		return EFAILED;
>> +	}
>> +
>> +	/* Compressed vs Uncompressed */
>> +	struct stat kernel_stat;
>> +	off_t kernel_file_size = -1;
> I would prefer if we stuck to declaring local variables
> at the top of this function.
>
>> +	if (fstat(kernel_fd, &kernel_stat) == 0)
>> +		kernel_file_size = kernel_stat.st_size;
>> +
>> +        /* slurp in the input kernel */
>>   	kernel_buf = slurp_decompress_file(kernel, &kernel_size);
>>   	if (!kernel_buf) {
>>   		fprintf(stderr, "Failed to decompress file %s:%s\n", kernel,
>>   				strerror(errno));
>> +		close(kernel_fd);
>>   		return EFAILED;
>>   	}
> ...