The daemon rejection for a peer-selected FNAMECMP_PARTIAL_DIR basis that the
confined open declined fired at every protocol. In-place partial updates are
only negotiated at protocol 30+ (CF_INPLACE_PARTIAL_DIR); at protocol 29 no
partial-basis redirect is possible, and the receiver already handled such a
transfer safely by completing it with no basis. Gate the abort on
inplace_partial so a pre-30 daemon falls back to the safe no-basis path instead
of aborting a legitimate transfer with a protocol error.
Fixes operator-path-partial-dir-daemon at protocol 29.
The sender records each file's length when it scans the file list, then
re-stats and maps the file at its current size when it later sends the
data. A file appended to in that window -- a live log written during a
nightly backup is the common case -- is transmitted longer than its
flist-recorded length.
The hardening checks in receive_data (offset + i > total_size and
offset + len > total_size) turned that benign, common condition into a
fatal "received more data than file length" RERR_PROTOCOL, tearing down
the whole connection so every file after the growing one is skipped.
Stock rsync has no such check: the receiver writes to a temp file, so
the extra bytes just extend it, and the whole-file checksum-verify
already contains a malicious sender.
Remove both checks to restore the stock behavior.
Backport of the same fix on the 3.5.0 branch; the python regression
test (growing-file_test.py) is not ported, the 3.5.0 suite is the
oracle for these branches.
The opt-out is meant to restore stock-3.2.7 "follow existing symlinks in the
module" behaviour, but several daemon symlink-resolution sites called the
confined resolver unconditionally and never consulted symlink_optout_allowed(),
so a module with "insecure links = yes" still refused to follow a symlinked
directory (change_dir ELOOP) or an alt-dest basis. Gate every such site on the
opt-out -- follow plainly like 3.2.7 when set, confine otherwise:
- change_dir() relative daemon branch (util1.c): plain chdir() under the
opt-out instead of secure_relative_open(), so a peer can read a path through
a symlinked directory again.
- basis_link_stat() (generator.c): the chrooted-relative and non-chroot
branches honour the opt-out. The non-chroot ABSOLUTE branch (a basis rooted
under the module by check_alt_basis_dirs, which can reach an in-module
symlink) is, when NOT opted out, resolved through owner_walk_parent so a
target landing outside the module root is refused -- closing a confirmed
--compare-dest=/symlink out-of-module read oracle. The leaf is taken
O_NOFOLLOW under the confined parent so --copy-links can't follow a leaf
symlink out; --fake-super folds its %stat via the held fd. A relative
sibling basis (--link-dest=../01) keeps the plain path (#915/#930).
- secure_basis_open() (receiver.c): plain do_open() under the opt-out.
- use_secure_symlinks (clientserver.c): cleared under the opt-out, so the
receiver's protected-regular EACCES write fallback is legacy too.
- secure_sender_parent_fd() (sender.c): declines (errno=0) under the opt-out
so --remove-source-files re-stats the plain path.
Default modules (insecure links = no) are unchanged and stay fully confined;
the opt-out is per-module and a client cannot enable it.
The backup-dir fix pinned chmod/chown for an operator leaf; extend the same
confinement to every other sink that re-resolves a cross-tree operator path
(an absolute --temp-dir/--partial-dir/--*-dest), each confirmed by a cross-uid
race PoC that is RED on stock 3.2.7 and GREEN here:
- set_file_attrs (rsync.c): route times (do_futimens), and -- by aliasing
held_fd to the pinned op_leaf_fd -- the xattr/ACL ops through the same
O_NOFOLLOW leaf fd, not a re-resolvable path. A raced/refused pin skips them
(op_refuse) rather than redirecting. finish_transfer now wraps the pre-rename
set_file_attrs in operator_path_resolve so an absolute --temp-dir temp file's
metadata is pinned too (in-tree temps keep their held dirfd, so op_pin is off).
- do_rename_at / do_link_at (syscall.c): an ABSOLUTE side was left at AT_FDCWD
and followed a flipped parent symlink, letting a name-disclosed --temp-dir /
predictable --partial-dir rename pull an attacker file into the destination
(content injection). Resolve an absolute (operator) side via the ownership
walk -- with module-exclude enforced -- while a relative (transfer) side stays
on secure_relative_open. --insecure-links keeps the legacy path.
- secure_basis_open (receiver.c): an alt-dest basis read
(--copy-dest/--compare-dest/--link-dest) on a non-daemon receiver used a bare
do_open; route it through the ownership walk (refuses a foreign-owned basis
symlink, still allows the "../sibling" basis of #915). Daemons keep their
existing confinement branch.
- configure.ac: probe futimens (do_futimens is gated on HAVE_FUTIMENS).
New fd wrappers: do_fchmod, do_fchown, do_futimens. Documented residuals left
as-is: copy_altdest_file's basis copy (routing it re-opens copy-xattrs-symlink-
race; basis_link_stat already refuses the foreign symlink), crtimes
(do_setattrlist_crtime/do_SetFileTime, path-based on macOS/Cygwin), and
device/socket leaf metadata (pinning a device via open has side effects).
recv_file_entry (normal and XMIT_HLINKED abbrev branches) and make_file
left F_RDEV_P / the symlink-name slot uninitialized when the matching
preserve option was off, so a later read walked into adjacent pool
memory. Empty the symlink name when !preserve_links, zero F_RDEV_P when
!preserve_devices, and mirror both in the abbreviated branch. receiver.c
saves/restores the --write-devices S_IFBLK mode flip around receive_data
so dest_mode() never sees the mutated mode.
Co-authored-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Route operator-supplied paths (--partial-dir, --backup-dir, alt/copy/link-dest,
--temp-dir, --files-from, --log-file, config and secrets files) and the sender's
own enumeration through the race-safe resolver and an ownership walk that refuses a
target redirected outside the module root. open_tmpfile() now creates the temp via
the cached held dir fd (do_mkstemp_atfd) so an in-tree dir symlink is followed
safely instead of refused. Adds --insecure-links to opt back into legacy following;
the daemon hard-refuses the client flag (use the "insecure links" module param).
A peer can send duplicate file-list entries; flist_sort_and_clean() then
clear_file()s one of them (basename and mode zeroed), but its slot stays
indexable. If the transfer phase later sends an ndx for that slot,
recv_files()/send_files() pick the cleared file_struct and f_name() on it
returns NULL. In recv_files() that NULL flowed straight into the daemon
filter check and set_file_attrs() → full_fname(), which dereferences its
argument: a remote NULL-pointer crash on any anonymous writable module
with -X negotiated.
Reject an inactive entry at the point both receiver and sender resolve
ndx → file_struct, and harden full_fname() against a NULL argument as a
backstop for the many error-reporting call sites that feed it an f_name()
result.
Found by fuzzing the daemon protocol over stdio.
(cherry picked from commit 8c70bff2daf5ba06a3b42ef58b9860b564c98ce9)
A daemon module with a /./ inner boundary (use chroot=yes, path=.../.inner)
relies on the inner module root, not the kernel chroot, as its trust
boundary: the chroot confines the outer path, but a symlink inside the
module can point to a sibling that is inside the chroot yet outside the
inner module. Extend the receiver finish/rename gate (use_secure_symlinks),
change_dir()'s confined fchdir, and the basis-open gate from
"am_daemon && !am_chrooted" to "am_daemon && (!am_chrooted || module_dirlen)"
so an inner module gets the same confinement as a non-chroot module.
secure_relpath_active() already carries the inner-module clause.
Tests: chroot-basis-forge/receiver-write/special-inner-module.
The held-directory cache kept only the single current leaf directory, so
moving to a sibling re-resolved the whole path from the anchor and re-opened
every ancestor. The generator and receiver don't recurse -- they iterate a
path-sorted file list (iteration == DFS) -- so there was no call stack holding
the ancestors.
Keep the whole current ancestor chain open as pinned dirfds, keyed on path
components, and on each resolution reuse the longest common prefix, popping
only the divergent tail. Each directory is then opened once while we are
inside its subtree. get_dir_fd() (receiver/generator) and held_dir_path_fd()
(sender) share the stack; ds_descend() still resolves each component, so
in-tree dir-symlink following and confinement are unchanged.
change_dir() drops the cwd-relative stack on any real chdir -- the one
invalidation needed now that the cache is content-keyed, not pointer-keyed.
The per-chunk reset_dir_fd_cache() calls in receiver.c/generator.c are gone:
they guarded the old pointer-keyed cache's aliasing bug, which a content-keyed
stack of pinned fds cannot have, and holding the fds across chunks is strictly
more race-safe (a swapped ancestor resolves to the pinned original).
(cherry picked from commit 182bed6cc6b7c33e546132a069b2d5f4203cb91c)
Behaviour-neutral held-dirfd conversion (the substrate the broadened gate
hangs off):
- set_file_attrs() resolves the entry's dir once (held_dfd_for) and issues
chown/chmod/times as single-component *at() calls against that held fd;
- the generator routes per-entry stat/mkdir/chmod through a held dirfd;
- the receiver reads the delta basis via the held dirfd and resets the
one-slot dir-fd cache at flist-chunk boundaries;
- the sender scan stats entries via the opendir fd.
receive_data() crashed a receiver that was merely DISCARDING a file's
delta stream. discard_receive_data() calls receive_data() with
fname == NULL and fd == -1, so size_r == 0 and mapbuf == NULL. A normal
block-MATCH token (against a block the basis and source share) then
reaches the !mapbuf branch added in 31fbb17d ("receiver: fix absolute
--partial-dir delta resume"), which calls full_fname(fname). full_fname()
dereferences its argument unconditionally (util1.c: `if (*fn == '/')`),
so fname == NULL faults there -> receiver SIGSEGV.
This is a normal-operation crash with a stock cooperating sender, not an
adversarial one. The generator hands the sender real block sums whenever
the basis is readable and we're in delta mode; the receiver only decides
to discard afterwards, when its output cannot be produced -- e.g. the
destination directory is not writable (mkstemp fails), the basis turns
out to be a directory, or a --partial-dir resume is skipped. A MATCH
token arriving during that discard hit the NULL deref.
The 31fbb17d branch is correct only for a REAL output transfer (fd != -1,
fname valid): there, a block match with no mapped basis is a genuine
protocol inconsistency (the generator promised a basis the receiver could
not open), and honoring it would silently omit those bytes from the
verification checksum or leave a hole, so hard-erroring -- and
full_fname(fname) -- is right. It conflated that with the discard path.
The discriminator is fd, not mapbuf: on the discard path fd == -1 always;
on the real-output inconsistency fd != -1. Scope the "no basis file"
protocol error to fd != -1 (where fname is non-NULL and full_fname is
safe) and, on the discard path (fd == -1), absorb the matched bytes
benignly (offset += len; continue) -- symmetric with the literal-token
handling just above, and restoring the pre-31fbb17d behavior. The
real-transfer inconsistency check is preserved unchanged.
(cherry picked from commit 26f13bc148)
The symlink-race hardening routed the receiver's basis open through
secure_relative_open(), which rejects any '..' -- so a sibling
--link-dest=../01 on a use-chroot=no daemon was silently ignored and every file
re-transferred (#915/#928, a regression from 3.4.1).
Narrow the confinement to the sanitizing daemon (am_daemon && !am_chrooted) and
re-anchor it at the module root, the real trust boundary: secure_relative_open()
prefixes the cwd's module-relative path (from rsync's logical curr_dir[], a
guaranteed lexical prefix of module_dir) and resolves beneath module_dir, so
RESOLVE_BENEATH permits an in-module '..' climb while still rejecting one that
escapes the module. secure_basis_open() opens with a bare do_open() in the
non-sanitizing cases. t_stub.c gains weak curr_dir[]/curr_dir_len for the
helpers (via #pragma weak on non-GNU compilers, where rsync.h erases
__attribute__).
Two tests: link-dest-relative-basis asserts the in-module '..' is honoured;
link-dest-module-escape asserts a --link-dest=../../OUTSIDE climb that leaves
the module is refused (not hard-linked to an outside file). See upstream
PR #930.
Thanks to @fufu65 (#915) and @JetAppsClark (#928) for the reports.
(cherry picked from commit 948edffb43)
A delta (--no-whole-file) resume whose basis is an absolute --partial-dir
looped forever on exit code 23 ("failed verification -- update put into
partial-dir"), stranding the correct data in the partial-dir and never
populating the destination.
Cause: an absolute --partial-dir makes the basis path absolute, but the
receiver opened it with secure_relative_open(NULL, fnamecmp, ...), which by
design rejects an absolute relpath (EINVAL). The basis fd was then -1, so
receive_data() mapped no basis and (because the matched-block sum_update() is
guarded by "if (mapbuf)") computed the whole-file verification checksum over
the literal data only -> a spurious mismatch every run. (The data itself was
correct, since the in-place update leaves the matched basis bytes in place.)
Under a non-chroot daemon the in-place write went through the same call and
failed outright.
Fix: add secure_basis_open(), which treats an operator-trusted absolute basis
path as (trusted directory + confined leaf) -- the same way secure_relative_open
already trusts an absolute basedir while keeping O_NOFOLLOW on the leaf -- and
use it for both the basis read and the inplace-partial write. The strict
"reject absolute relpath" contract of secure_relative_open is left intact.
Defense-in-depth: receive_data() now treats a block-match token with no mapped
basis as a protocol inconsistency (it can only arise from a basis that the
generator opened but the receiver could not), failing cleanly instead of
silently dropping those bytes from the verify checksum or the output.
Thanks to @sylvain-ilm for the report (#724, #725).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
(cherry picked from commit eee05c177a)
Two assorted audit findings:
- receive_data() never bounds-checked the block index returned
by recv_token() against sum.count before computing offset2
and feeding it to map_ptr(). An out-of-bounds index from a
hostile sender produces invalid memory access. Add a
sum.count bounds check.
- read_delay_line()'s strchr() call could return NULL when no
space was found, but the code unconditionally added 1 to the
result before dereferencing. Low impact (just a disconnect on
exit of the client-specific forked process) but the NULL
deref is real. Guard the NULL.
Both reported by Joshua Rogers.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Commit 797e17f ("fixed an invalid access to files array") added a
parent_ndx < 0 guard to send_files() in sender.c, but the visually-
identical block in recv_files() in receiver.c was not updated. A
malicious rsync:// server can therefore drive any connecting client
into the same out-of-bounds dir_flist->files[-1] read followed by a
file_struct dereference in f_name() one line later.
Reach: protocol-30+ default (inc_recurse) makes flist.c:2745 set
parent_ndx = -1 on the first received flist when the sender omits a
leading "." entry; rsync.c flist_for_ndx() does not reject ndx == 0
in that state because the range check evaluates 0 < 0 = false; and
read_ndx_and_attrs() only validates ndx with the ITEM_TRANSFER bit
set, so iflags=ITEM_IS_NEW (or any other non-transfer iflag word)
bypasses the check.
Apply the same guard receiver-side. Confirmed: the same PoC (a
minimal Python rsyncd that handshakes with CF_INC_RECURSE, sends a
no-leading-"." flist, and emits ndx=0 with ITEM_IS_NEW) crashes
unpatched 3.4.2 with SEGV_MAPERR si_addr=0x4101a-class in the
receiver child; with this guard it exits cleanly with code 2
(RERR_PROTOCOL).
The attack surface delta over the sender variant is large:
the original was malicious-client -> daemon, this is
malicious-server -> any rsync client doing a normal rsync://
or remote-shell pull.
Reported by Pratham Gupta (alchemy1729).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The receiver's three compressed-token decoders --
recv_deflated_token (zlib), recv_zstd_token, and
recv_compressed_token (lz4) -- accumulated rx_token (a 32-bit
signed counter) without overflow checking. A malicious sender
could craft a compressed-token stream that walked rx_token past
INT32_MAX, with careful manipulation leaking process memory
contents to the wire (environment variables, passwords, heap
pointers, library pointers -- significantly weakening ASLR
and facilitating further exploitation).
Cap rx_token at MAX_TOKEN_INDEX = 0x7ffffffe. Fold the
bookkeeping into recv_compressed_token_num() and
recv_compressed_token_run() shared by all three decoders. Reject
negative or out-of-range token values explicitly. Also cap the
simple_recv_token literal-block length at the source: any
wire-supplied length > CHUNK_SIZE is ill-formed (the matching
simple_send_token never writes a chunk larger than CHUNK_SIZE),
so reject before looping on attacker-controlled bytes.
Reach: an authenticated daemon connection with compression
enabled (the default for protocols >= 30 when both peers
advertise it). Disabling compression on the daemon
("refuse options = compress" in rsyncd.conf) is the available
workaround.
Reporter: Omar Elsayed (seks99x).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add the rest of the path-based syscall wrappers and migrate every
receiver-side caller:
- do_lchown_at, do_rename_at, do_mkdir_at, do_symlink_at,
do_mknod_at, do_link_at, do_unlink_at, do_rmdir_at,
do_utimensat_at, do_stat_at, do_lstat_at
Same shape as do_chmod_at: open each parent under
secure_relative_open(), call the *at() variant against the dirfd,
fall through to the bare path-based syscall in non-daemon /
chrooted / absolute-path / no-parent cases. macOS's
setattrlist-based set_times tier is also routed through the
utimensat_at path on daemon-no-chroot.
Hardenings to secure_relative_open() itself:
- confine basedir resolution under the same kernel mechanism
used for relpath (basedirs from --copy-dest / --link-dest are
sender-controllable in daemon mode)
- reject any '..' component (bare '..', 'foo/..', 'subdir/..')
so the per-component O_NOFOLLOW fallback can't escape
- return the dirfd we built up from the per-component fallback
when the caller passed O_DIRECTORY (otherwise every do_*_at
failed with EINVAL on platforms without RESOLVE_BENEATH)
Adds testsuite/alt-dest-symlink-race.test and
testsuite/secure-relpath-validation.test (with t_secure_relpath
helper) as regression coverage for the new hardenings.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
CVE-2026-29518: an rsync daemon configured with "use chroot = no"
is exposed to a TOCTOU race on parent path components. A local
attacker with write access to a module can replace a parent
directory component with a symlink between the receiver's check
and its open(), redirecting reads (basis-file disclosure) and
writes (file overwrite) outside the module. Under elevated daemon
privilege this allows privilege escalation. Default
"use chroot = yes" is not exposed.
Add secure_relative_open() in syscall.c. It walks the parent
components under RESOLVE_BENEATH (Linux 5.6+) /
O_RESOLVE_BENEATH (FreeBSD 13+, macOS 15+) / per-component
O_NOFOLLOW elsewhere, anchored at a trusted dirfd, so a parent-
symlink swap is rejected by the kernel. Route the receiver's
basis-file open in receiver.c through it when use_secure_symlinks
is set in clientserver.c rsync_module().
Reporters: Nullx3D (Batuhan SANCAK); Damien Neil; Michael Stapelberg.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
when we open a file that we don't expect to be a symlink use
O_NOFOLLOW to prevent a race condition where an attacker could change
a file between being a normal file and a symlink
- Size flist checksum data to hold the active size, not the max.
- Add a negotiated hash method to the daemon auth code.
- Use EVP for all openssl digests. This makes it easy to add more
openssl digest methods and avoids deprecation warnings.
- Support a way to re-enable deprecated digests via openssl conf
file and allow a default file to be configured.
- Supply a simple openssl-rsync.cnf file to enable legacy digests.
A local_server copy now includes the dev+ino info from the destination
file so that the sender can make sure that it is not going to delete
the destination file. Fixes mistakes such as:
rsync -aiv --remove-source-files dir .
The Linux fs.protected_regular sysctl setting could cause rsync to fail to write a file in-place with the O_CREAT flag set, so the code now tries an open without O_CREAT when it might help to avoid an EACCES error. A testsuite script is included (and slightly improved by Wayne to ensure that it outputs a SKIP when fs.protected_regular is turned off).
I replaced git-set-file-times with an improved version that I wrote
recently (in python3). A new script uses it to figure out the
last-modified year for each *.[ch] file and updates its copyright.
It also puts the latest year into the latest-year.h file for the
output of --version.
On BSD-ish systems you can type Ctrl+T to see the current file and
the progress output (in --info=progress2 format). On hosts w/o
SIGINFO, use something like "killall -VTALRM rsync" or a more
targetted "kill -VTALRM PID ..." call (as needed).
This is a fleshed out version of the old one in the patches repo with
documentation & proper handling of the implied --inplace option for a
daemon's option-rufusing considerations. I ommitted the -w short option
as I would hate for someone to turn this on accidentally.
The new code tries to punch holes in the destination file using newer
Linux fallocate features. It also supports a --whole-file + --sparse +
--inplace copy on any filesystem by truncating the destination file.
Filipe Casal