PRCTL
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 2021-03-22
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NAME
prctl - operations on a process or thread
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/prctl.h>
int prctl(int option, unsigned long arg2, unsigned long arg3,
unsigned long arg4, unsigned long arg5);
DESCRIPTION
prctl()
manipulates various aspects of the behavior
of the calling thread or process.
Note that careless use of some
prctl()
operations can confuse the user-space run-time environment,
so these operations should be used with care.
prctl()
is called with a first argument describing what to do
(with values defined in <linux/prctl.h>), and further
arguments with a significance depending on the first one.
The first argument can be:
- PR_CAP_AMBIENT (since Linux 4.3)
-
Reads or changes the ambient capability set of the calling thread,
according to the value of
arg2,
which must be one of the following:
-
- PR_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE
-
The capability specified in
arg3
is added to the ambient set.
The specified capability must already be present in
both the permitted and the inheritable sets of the process.
This operation is not permitted if the
SECBIT_NO_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE
securebit is set.
- PR_CAP_AMBIENT_LOWER
-
The capability specified in
arg3
is removed from the ambient set.
- PR_CAP_AMBIENT_IS_SET
-
The
prctl()
call returns 1 if the capability in
arg3
is in the ambient set and 0 if it is not.
- PR_CAP_AMBIENT_CLEAR_ALL
-
All capabilities will be removed from the ambient set.
This operation requires setting
arg3
to zero.
-
In all of the above operations,
arg4
and
arg5
must be specified as 0.
-
Higher-level interfaces layered on top of the above operations are
provided in the
libcap(3)
library in the form of
cap_get_ambient(3),
cap_set_ambient(3),
and
cap_reset_ambient(3).
- PR_CAPBSET_READ (since Linux 2.6.25)
-
Return (as the function result) 1 if the capability specified in
arg2
is in the calling thread's capability bounding set,
or 0 if it is not.
(The capability constants are defined in
<linux/capability.h>.)
The capability bounding set dictates
whether the process can receive the capability through a
file's permitted capability set on a subsequent call to
execve(2).
-
If the capability specified in
arg2
is not valid, then the call fails with the error
EINVAL.
-
A higher-level interface layered on top of this operation is provided in the
libcap(3)
library in the form of
cap_get_bound(3).
- PR_CAPBSET_DROP (since Linux 2.6.25)
-
If the calling thread has the
CAP_SETPCAP
capability within its user namespace, then drop the capability specified by
arg2
from the calling thread's capability bounding set.
Any children of the calling thread will inherit the newly
reduced bounding set.
-
The call fails with the error:
EPERM
if the calling thread does not have the
CAP_SETPCAP;
EINVAL
if
arg2
does not represent a valid capability; or
EINVAL
if file capabilities are not enabled in the kernel,
in which case bounding sets are not supported.
-
A higher-level interface layered on top of this operation is provided in the
libcap(3)
library in the form of
cap_drop_bound(3).
- PR_SET_CHILD_SUBREAPER (since Linux 3.4)
-
If
arg2
is nonzero,
set the "child subreaper" attribute of the calling process;
if
arg2
is zero, unset the attribute.
-
A subreaper fulfills the role of
init(1)
for its descendant processes.
When a process becomes orphaned
(i.e., its immediate parent terminates),
then that process will be reparented to
the nearest still living ancestor subreaper.
Subsequently, calls to
getppid(2)
in the orphaned process will now return the PID of the subreaper process,
and when the orphan terminates, it is the subreaper process that
will receive a
SIGCHLD
signal and will be able to
wait(2)
on the process to discover its termination status.
-
The setting of the "child subreaper" attribute
is not inherited by children created by
fork(2)
and
clone(2).
The setting is preserved across
execve(2).
-
Establishing a subreaper process is useful in session management frameworks
where a hierarchical group of processes is managed by a subreaper process
that needs to be informed when one of the processes---for example,
a double-forked daemon---terminates
(perhaps so that it can restart that process).
Some
init(1)
frameworks (e.g.,
systemd(1))
employ a subreaper process for similar reasons.
- PR_GET_CHILD_SUBREAPER (since Linux 3.4)
-
Return the "child subreaper" setting of the caller,
in the location pointed to by
(int *) arg2.
- PR_SET_DUMPABLE (since Linux 2.3.20)
-
Set the state of the "dumpable" attribute,
which determines whether core dumps are produced for the calling process
upon delivery of a signal whose default behavior is to produce a core dump.
-
In kernels up to and including 2.6.12,
arg2
must be either 0
(SUID_DUMP_DISABLE,
process is not dumpable) or 1
(SUID_DUMP_USER,
process is dumpable).
Between kernels 2.6.13 and 2.6.17,
the value 2 was also permitted,
which caused any binary which normally would not be dumped
to be dumped readable by root only;
for security reasons, this feature has been removed.
(See also the description of
/proc/sys/fs/:suid_dumpable
in
proc(5).)
-
Normally, the "dumpable" attribute is set to 1.
However, it is reset to the current value contained in the file
/proc/sys/fs/:suid_dumpable
(which by default has the value 0),
in the following circumstances:
-
- *
-
The process's effective user or group ID is changed.
- *
-
The process's filesystem user or group ID is changed (see
credentials(7)).
- *
-
The process executes
(execve(2))
a set-user-ID or set-group-ID program, resulting in a change
of either the effective user ID or the effective group ID.
- *
-
The process executes
(execve(2))
a program that has file capabilities (see
capabilities(7)),
but only if the permitted capabilities
gained exceed those already permitted for the process.
-
Processes that are not dumpable can not be attached via
ptrace(2)
PTRACE_ATTACH;
see
ptrace(2)
for further details.
-
If a process is not dumpable,
the ownership of files in the process's
/proc/[pid]
directory is affected as described in
proc(5).
- PR_GET_DUMPABLE (since Linux 2.3.20)
-
Return (as the function result) the current state of the calling
process's dumpable attribute.
- PR_SET_ENDIAN (since Linux 2.6.18, PowerPC only)
-
Set the endian-ness of the calling process to the value given
in arg2, which should be one of the following:
PR_ENDIAN_BIG,
PR_ENDIAN_LITTLE,
or
PR_ENDIAN_PPC_LITTLE
(PowerPC pseudo little endian).
- PR_GET_ENDIAN (since Linux 2.6.18, PowerPC only)
-
Return the endian-ness of the calling process,
in the location pointed to by
(int *) arg2.
- PR_SET_FP_MODE (since Linux 4.0, only on MIPS)
-
On the MIPS architecture,
user-space code can be built using an ABI which permits linking
with code that has more restrictive floating-point (FP) requirements.
For example, user-space code may be built to target the O32 FPXX ABI
and linked with code built for either one of the more restrictive
FP32 or FP64 ABIs.
When more restrictive code is linked in,
the overall requirement for the process is to use the more
restrictive floating-point mode.
-
Because the kernel has no means of knowing in advance
which mode the process should be executed in,
and because these restrictions can
change over the lifetime of the process, the
PR_SET_FP_MODE
operation is provided to allow control of the floating-point mode
from user space.
-
The
(unsigned int) arg2
argument is a bit mask describing the floating-point mode used:
-
- PR_FP_MODE_FR
-
When this bit is
unset
(so called
FR=0 or FR0
mode), the 32 floating-point registers are 32 bits wide,
and 64-bit registers are represented as a pair of registers
(even- and odd- numbered,
with the even-numbered register containing the lower 32 bits,
and the odd-numbered register containing the higher 32 bits).
-
When this bit is
set
(on supported hardware),
the 32 floating-point registers are 64 bits wide (so called
FR=1 or FR1
mode).
Note that modern MIPS implementations (MIPS R6 and newer) support
FR=1
mode only.
-
Applications that use the O32 FP32 ABI can operate only when this bit is
unset
(FR=0;
or they can be used with FRE enabled, see below).
Applications that use the O32 FP64 ABI
(and the O32 FP64A ABI, which exists to
provide the ability to operate with existing FP32 code; see below)
can operate only when this bit is
set
(FR=1).
Applications that use the O32 FPXX ABI can operate with either
FR=0
or
FR=1.
- PR_FP_MODE_FRE
-
Enable emulation of 32-bit floating-point mode.
When this mode is enabled,
it emulates 32-bit floating-point operations
by raising a reserved-instruction exception
on every instruction that uses 32-bit formats and
the kernel then handles the instruction in software.
(The problem lies in the discrepancy of handling odd-numbered registers
which are the high 32 bits of 64-bit registers with even numbers in
FR=0
mode and the lower 32-bit parts of odd-numbered 64-bit registers in
FR=1
mode.)
Enabling this bit is necessary when code with the O32 FP32 ABI should operate
with code with compatible the O32 FPXX or O32 FP64A ABIs (which require
FR=1
FPU mode) or when it is executed on newer hardware (MIPS R6 onwards)
which lacks
FR=0
mode support when a binary with the FP32 ABI is used.
-
Note that this mode makes sense only when the FPU is in 64-bit mode
(FR=1).
-
Note that the use of emulation inherently has a significant performance hit
and should be avoided if possible.
-
In the N32/N64 ABI, 64-bit floating-point mode is always used,
so FPU emulation is not required and the FPU always operates in
FR=1
mode.
-
This option is mainly intended for use by the dynamic linker
(ld.so(8)).
-
The arguments
arg3,
arg4,
and
arg5
are ignored.
- PR_GET_FP_MODE (since Linux 4.0, only on MIPS)
-
Return (as the function result)
the current floating-point mode (see the description of
PR_SET_FP_MODE
for details).
-
On success,
the call returns a bit mask which represents the current floating-point mode.
-
The arguments
arg2,
arg3,
arg4,
and
arg5
are ignored.
- PR_SET_FPEMU (since Linux 2.4.18, 2.5.9, only on ia64)
-
Set floating-point emulation control bits to arg2.
Pass
PR_FPEMU_NOPRINT
to silently emulate floating-point operation accesses, or
PR_FPEMU_SIGFPE
to not emulate floating-point operations and send
SIGFPE
instead.
- PR_GET_FPEMU (since Linux 2.4.18, 2.5.9, only on ia64)
-
Return floating-point emulation control bits,
in the location pointed to by
(int *) arg2.
- PR_SET_FPEXC (since Linux 2.4.21, 2.5.32, only on PowerPC)
-
Set floating-point exception mode to arg2.
Pass PR_FP_EXC_SW_ENABLE to use FPEXC for FP exception enables,
PR_FP_EXC_DIV for floating-point divide by zero,
PR_FP_EXC_OVF for floating-point overflow,
PR_FP_EXC_UND for floating-point underflow,
PR_FP_EXC_RES for floating-point inexact result,
PR_FP_EXC_INV for floating-point invalid operation,
PR_FP_EXC_DISABLED for FP exceptions disabled,
PR_FP_EXC_NONRECOV for async nonrecoverable exception mode,
PR_FP_EXC_ASYNC for async recoverable exception mode,
PR_FP_EXC_PRECISE for precise exception mode.
- PR_GET_FPEXC (since Linux 2.4.21, 2.5.32, only on PowerPC)
-
Return floating-point exception mode,
in the location pointed to by
(int *) arg2.
- PR_SET_IO_FLUSHER (since Linux 5.6)
-
If a user process is involved in the block layer or filesystem I/O path,
and can allocate memory while processing I/O requests it must set
arg2 to 1.
This will put the process in the IO_FLUSHER state,
which allows it special treatment to make progress when allocating memory.
If arg2 is 0, the process will clear the IO_FLUSHER state, and
the default behavior will be used.
-
The calling process must have the
CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
capability.
-
arg3,
arg4,
and
arg5
must be zero.
-
The IO_FLUSHER state is inherited by a child process created via
fork(2)
and is preserved across
execve(2).
-
Examples of IO_FLUSHER applications are FUSE daemons, SCSI device
emulation daemons, and daemons that perform error handling like multipath
path recovery applications.
- PR_GET_IO_FLUSHER (Since Linux 5.6)
-
Return (as the function result) the IO_FLUSHER state of the caller.
A value of 1 indicates that the caller is in the IO_FLUSHER state;
0 indicates that the caller is not in the IO_FLUSHER state.
-
The calling process must have the
CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
capability.
-
arg2,
arg3,
arg4,
and
arg5
must be zero.
- PR_SET_KEEPCAPS (since Linux 2.2.18)
-
Set the state of the calling thread's "keep capabilities" flag.
The effect of this flag is described in
capabilities(7).
arg2
must be either 0 (clear the flag)
or 1 (set the flag).
The "keep capabilities" value will be reset to 0 on subsequent calls to
execve(2).
- PR_GET_KEEPCAPS (since Linux 2.2.18)
-
Return (as the function result) the current state of the calling thread's
"keep capabilities" flag.
See
capabilities(7)
for a description of this flag.
- PR_MCE_KILL (since Linux 2.6.32)
-
Set the machine check memory corruption kill policy for the calling thread.
If
arg2
is
PR_MCE_KILL_CLEAR,
clear the thread memory corruption kill policy and use the system-wide default.
(The system-wide default is defined by
/proc/sys/vm/memory_failure_early_kill;
see
proc(5).)
If
arg2
is
PR_MCE_KILL_SET,
use a thread-specific memory corruption kill policy.
In this case,
arg3
defines whether the policy is
early kill
(PR_MCE_KILL_EARLY),
late kill
(PR_MCE_KILL_LATE),
or the system-wide default
(PR_MCE_KILL_DEFAULT).
Early kill means that the thread receives a
SIGBUS
signal as soon as hardware memory corruption is detected inside
its address space.
In late kill mode, the process is killed only when it accesses a corrupted page.
See
sigaction(2)
for more information on the
SIGBUS
signal.
The policy is inherited by children.
The remaining unused
prctl()
arguments must be zero for future compatibility.
- PR_MCE_KILL_GET (since Linux 2.6.32)
-
Return (as the function result)
the current per-process machine check kill policy.
All unused
prctl()
arguments must be zero.
- PR_SET_MM (since Linux 3.3)
-
Modify certain kernel memory map descriptor fields
of the calling process.
Usually these fields are set by the kernel and dynamic loader (see
ld.so(8)
for more information) and a regular application should not use this feature.
However, there are cases, such as self-modifying programs,
where a program might find it useful to change its own memory map.
-
The calling process must have the
CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
capability.
The value in
arg2
is one of the options below, while
arg3
provides a new value for the option.
The
arg4
and
arg5
arguments must be zero if unused.
-
Before Linux 3.10,
this feature is available only if the kernel is built with the
CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE
option enabled.
-
- PR_SET_MM_START_CODE
-
Set the address above which the program text can run.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and executable,
but not writable or shareable (see
mprotect(2)
and
mmap(2)
for more information).
- PR_SET_MM_END_CODE
-
Set the address below which the program text can run.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and executable,
but not writable or shareable.
- PR_SET_MM_START_DATA
-
Set the address above which initialized and
uninitialized (bss) data are placed.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and writable,
but not executable or shareable.
- PR_SET_MM_END_DATA
-
Set the address below which initialized and
uninitialized (bss) data are placed.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and writable,
but not executable or shareable.
- PR_SET_MM_START_STACK
-
Set the start address of the stack.
The corresponding memory area must be readable and writable.
- PR_SET_MM_START_BRK
-
Set the address above which the program heap can be expanded with
brk(2)
call.
The address must be greater than the ending address of
the current program data segment.
In addition, the combined size of the resulting heap and
the size of the data segment can't exceed the
RLIMIT_DATA
resource limit (see
setrlimit(2)).
- PR_SET_MM_BRK
-
Set the current
brk(2)
value.
The requirements for the address are the same as for the
PR_SET_MM_START_BRK
option.
The following options are available since Linux 3.5.
- PR_SET_MM_ARG_START
-
Set the address above which the program command line is placed.
- PR_SET_MM_ARG_END
-
Set the address below which the program command line is placed.
- PR_SET_MM_ENV_START
-
Set the address above which the program environment is placed.
- PR_SET_MM_ENV_END
-
Set the address below which the program environment is placed.
-
The address passed with
PR_SET_MM_ARG_START,
PR_SET_MM_ARG_END,
PR_SET_MM_ENV_START,
and
PR_SET_MM_ENV_END
should belong to a process stack area.
Thus, the corresponding memory area must be readable, writable, and
(depending on the kernel configuration) have the
MAP_GROWSDOWN
attribute set (see
mmap(2)).
- PR_SET_MM_AUXV
-
Set a new auxiliary vector.
The
arg3
argument should provide the address of the vector.
The
arg4
is the size of the vector.
- PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE
-
Supersede the
/proc/pid/exe
symbolic link with a new one pointing to a new executable file
identified by the file descriptor provided in
arg3
argument.
The file descriptor should be obtained with a regular
open(2)
call.
-
To change the symbolic link, one needs to unmap all existing
executable memory areas, including those created by the kernel itself
(for example the kernel usually creates at least one executable
memory area for the ELF
.text
section).
-
In Linux 4.9 and earlier, the
PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE
operation can be performed only once in a process's lifetime;
attempting to perform the operation a second time results in the error
EPERM.
This restriction was enforced for security reasons that were subsequently
deemed specious,
and the restriction was removed in Linux 4.10 because some
user-space applications needed to perform this operation more than once.
The following options are available since Linux 3.18.
- PR_SET_MM_MAP
-
Provides one-shot access to all the addresses by passing in a
struct prctl_mm_map
(as defined in <linux/prctl.h>).
The
arg4
argument should provide the size of the struct.
-
This feature is available only if the kernel is built with the
CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE
option enabled.
- PR_SET_MM_MAP_SIZE
-
Returns the size of the
struct prctl_mm_map
the kernel expects.
This allows user space to find a compatible struct.
The
arg4
argument should be a pointer to an unsigned int.
-
This feature is available only if the kernel is built with the
CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE
option enabled.
- PR_MPX_ENABLE_MANAGEMENT, PR_MPX_DISABLE_MANAGEMENT (since Linux 3.19, removed in Linux 5.4; only on x86)
-
Enable or disable kernel management of Memory Protection eXtensions (MPX)
bounds tables.
The
arg2,
arg3,
arg4,
and
arg5
arguments must be zero.
-
MPX is a hardware-assisted mechanism for performing bounds checking on
pointers.
It consists of a set of registers storing bounds information
and a set of special instruction prefixes that tell the CPU on which
instructions it should do bounds enforcement.
There is a limited number of these registers and
when there are more pointers than registers,
their contents must be "spilled" into a set of tables.
These tables are called "bounds tables" and the MPX
prctl()
operations control
whether the kernel manages their allocation and freeing.
-
When management is enabled, the kernel will take over allocation
and freeing of the bounds tables.
It does this by trapping the #BR exceptions that result
at first use of missing bounds tables and
instead of delivering the exception to user space,
it allocates the table and populates the bounds directory
with the location of the new table.
For freeing, the kernel checks to see if bounds tables are
present for memory which is not allocated, and frees them if so.
-
Before enabling MPX management using
PR_MPX_ENABLE_MANAGEMENT,
the application must first have allocated a user-space buffer for
the bounds directory and placed the location of that directory in the
bndcfgu
register.
-
These calls fail if the CPU or kernel does not support MPX.
Kernel support for MPX is enabled via the
CONFIG_X86_INTEL_MPX
configuration option.
You can check whether the CPU supports MPX by looking for the
mpx
CPUID bit, like with the following command:
-
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep ' mpx '
-
A thread may not switch in or out of long (64-bit) mode while MPX is
enabled.
-
All threads in a process are affected by these calls.
-
The child of a
fork(2)
inherits the state of MPX management.
During
execve(2),
MPX management is reset to a state as if
PR_MPX_DISABLE_MANAGEMENT
had been called.
-
For further information on Intel MPX, see the kernel source file
Documentation/x86/intel_mpx.txt.
-
Due to a lack of toolchain support,
PR_MPX_ENABLE_MANAGEMENT and PR_MPX_DISABLE_MANAGEMENT
are not supported in Linux 5.4 and later.
- PR_SET_NAME (since Linux 2.6.9)
-
Set the name of the calling thread,
using the value in the location pointed to by
(char *) arg2.
The name can be up to 16 bytes long,
including the terminating null byte.
(If the length of the string, including the terminating null byte,
exceeds 16 bytes, the string is silently truncated.)
This is the same attribute that can be set via
pthread_setname_np(3)
and retrieved using
pthread_getname_np(3).
The attribute is likewise accessible via
/proc/self/task/[tid]/comm
(see
proc(5)),
where
[tid]
is the thread ID of the calling thread, as returned by
gettid(2).
- PR_GET_NAME (since Linux 2.6.11)
-
Return the name of the calling thread,
in the buffer pointed to by
(char *) arg2.
The buffer should allow space for up to 16 bytes;
the returned string will be null-terminated.
- PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS (since Linux 3.5)
-
Set the calling thread's
no_new_privs
attribute to the value in
arg2.
With
no_new_privs
set to 1,
execve(2)
promises not to grant privileges to do anything
that could not have been done without the
execve(2)
call (for example,
rendering the set-user-ID and set-group-ID mode bits,
and file capabilities non-functional).
Once set, the
no_new_privs
attribute cannot be unset.
The setting of this attribute is inherited by children created by
fork(2)
and
clone(2),
and preserved across
execve(2).
-
Since Linux 4.10,
the value of a thread's
no_new_privs
attribute can be viewed via the
NoNewPrivs
field in the
/proc/[pid]/status
file.
-
For more information, see the kernel source file
Documentation/userspace-api/no_new_privs.rst
(or
Documentation/prctl/no_new_privs.txt
before Linux 4.13).
See also
seccomp(2).
- PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS (since Linux 3.5)
-
Return (as the function result) the value of the
no_new_privs
attribute for the calling thread.
A value of 0 indicates the regular
execve(2)
behavior.
A value of 1 indicates
execve(2)
will operate in the privilege-restricting mode described above.
- PR_PAC_RESET_KEYS (since Linux 5.0, only on arm64)
-
Securely reset the thread's pointer authentication keys
to fresh random values generated by the kernel.
-
The set of keys to be reset is specified by
arg2,
which must be a logical OR of zero or more of the following:
-
- PR_PAC_APIAKEY
-
instruction authentication key A
- PR_PAC_APIBKEY
-
instruction authentication key B
- PR_PAC_APDAKEY
-
data authentication key A
- PR_PAC_APDBKEY
-
data authentication key B
- PR_PAC_APGAKEY
-
generic authentication "A" key.
-
(Yes folks, there really is no generic B key.)
-
As a special case, if
arg2
is zero, then all the keys are reset.
Since new keys could be added in future,
this is the recommended way to completely wipe the existing keys
when establishing a clean execution context.
Note that there is no need to use
PR_PAC_RESET_KEYS
in preparation for calling
execve(2),
since
execve(2)
resets all the pointer authentication keys.
-
The remaining arguments
arg3, arg4, and arg5
must all be zero.
-
If the arguments are invalid,
and in particular if
arg2
contains set bits that are unrecognized
or that correspond to a key not available on this platform,
then the call fails with error
EINVAL.
-
Warning:
Because the compiler or run-time environment
may be using some or all of the keys,
a successful
PR_PAC_RESET_KEYS
may crash the calling process.
The conditions for using it safely are complex and system-dependent.
Don't use it unless you know what you are doing.
-
For more information, see the kernel source file
Documentation/arm64/pointer-authentication.rst
(or
Documentation/arm64/pointer-authentication.txt
before Linux 5.3).
- PR_SET_PDEATHSIG (since Linux 2.1.57)
-
Set the parent-death signal
of the calling process to arg2 (either a signal value
in the range 1..NSIG-1,
or 0 to clear).
This is the signal that the calling process will get when its
parent dies.
-
Warning:
the "parent" in this case is considered to be the
thread
that created this process.
In other words, the signal will be sent when that thread terminates
(via, for example,
pthread_exit(3)),
rather than after all of the threads in the parent process terminate.
-
The parent-death signal is sent upon subsequent termination of the parent
thread and also upon termination of each subreaper process
(see the description of
PR_SET_CHILD_SUBREAPER
above) to which the caller is subsequently reparented.
If the parent thread and all ancestor subreapers have already terminated
by the time of the
PR_SET_PDEATHSIG
operation, then no parent-death signal is sent to the caller.
-
The parent-death signal is process-directed (see
signal(7))
and, if the child installs a handler using the
sigaction(2)
SA_SIGINFO
flag, the
si_pid
field of the
siginfo_t
argument of the handler contains the PID of the terminating parent process.
-
The parent-death signal setting is cleared for the child of a
fork(2).
It is also
(since Linux 2.4.36 / 2.6.23)
cleared when executing a set-user-ID or set-group-ID binary,
or a binary that has associated capabilities (see
capabilities(7));
otherwise, this value is preserved across
execve(2).
The parent-death signal setting is also cleared upon changes to
any of the following thread credentials:
effective user ID, effective group ID, filesystem user ID,
or filesystem group ID.
- PR_GET_PDEATHSIG (since Linux 2.3.15)
-
Return the current value of the parent process death signal,
in the location pointed to by
(int *) arg2.
- PR_SET_PTRACER (since Linux 3.4)
-
This is meaningful only when the Yama LSM is enabled and in mode 1
("restricted ptrace", visible via
/proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope).
When a "ptracer process ID" is passed in arg2,
the caller is declaring that the ptracer process can
ptrace(2)
the calling process as if it were a direct process ancestor.
Each
PR_SET_PTRACER
operation replaces the previous "ptracer process ID".
Employing
PR_SET_PTRACER
with
arg2
set to 0 clears the caller's "ptracer process ID".
If
arg2
is
PR_SET_PTRACER_ANY,
the ptrace restrictions introduced by Yama are effectively disabled for the
calling process.
-
For further information, see the kernel source file
Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/Yama.rst
(or
Documentation/security/Yama.txt
before Linux 4.13).
- PR_SET_SECCOMP (since Linux 2.6.23)
-
Set the secure computing (seccomp) mode for the calling thread, to limit
the available system calls.
The more recent
seccomp(2)
system call provides a superset of the functionality of
PR_SET_SECCOMP.
-
The seccomp mode is selected via
arg2.
(The seccomp constants are defined in
<linux/seccomp.h>.)
-
With
arg2
set to
SECCOMP_MODE_STRICT,
the only system calls that the thread is permitted to make are
read(2),
write(2),
_exit(2)
(but not
exit_group(2)),
and
sigreturn(2).
Other system calls result in the delivery of a
SIGKILL
signal.
Strict secure computing mode is useful for number-crunching applications
that may need to execute untrusted byte code,
perhaps obtained by reading from a pipe or socket.
This operation is available only
if the kernel is configured with
CONFIG_SECCOMP
enabled.
-
With
arg2
set to
SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER (since Linux 3.5),
the system calls allowed are defined by a pointer
to a Berkeley Packet Filter passed in
arg3.
This argument is a pointer to
struct sock_fprog;
it can be designed to filter
arbitrary system calls and system call arguments.
This mode is available only if the kernel is configured with
CONFIG_SECCOMP_FILTER
enabled.
-
If
SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER
filters permit
fork(2),
then the seccomp mode is inherited by children created by
fork(2);
if
execve(2)
is permitted, then the seccomp mode is preserved across
execve(2).
If the filters permit
prctl()
calls, then additional filters can be added;
they are run in order until the first non-allow result is seen.
-
For further information, see the kernel source file
Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst
(or
Documentation/prctl/seccomp_filter.txt
before Linux 4.13).
- PR_GET_SECCOMP (since Linux 2.6.23)
-
Return (as the function result)
the secure computing mode of the calling thread.
If the caller is not in secure computing mode, this operation returns 0;
if the caller is in strict secure computing mode, then the
prctl()
call will cause a
SIGKILL
signal to be sent to the process.
If the caller is in filter mode, and this system call is allowed by the
seccomp filters, it returns 2; otherwise, the process is killed with a
SIGKILL
signal.
This operation is available only
if the kernel is configured with
CONFIG_SECCOMP
enabled.
-
Since Linux 3.8, the
Seccomp
field of the
/proc/[pid]/status
file provides a method of obtaining the same information,
without the risk that the process is killed; see
proc(5).
- PR_SET_SECUREBITS (since Linux 2.6.26)
-
Set the "securebits" flags of the calling thread to the value supplied in
arg2.
See
capabilities(7).
- PR_GET_SECUREBITS (since Linux 2.6.26)
-
Return (as the function result)
the "securebits" flags of the calling thread.
See
capabilities(7).
- PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL (since Linux 4.17)
-
Return (as the function result)
the state of the speculation misfeature specified in
arg2.
Currently, the only permitted value for this argument is
PR_SPEC_STORE_BYPASS
(otherwise the call fails with the error
ENODEV).
-
The return value uses bits 0-3 with the following meaning:
-
- PR_SPEC_PRCTL
-
Mitigation can be controlled per thread by
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL.
- PR_SPEC_ENABLE
-
The speculation feature is enabled, mitigation is disabled.
- PR_SPEC_DISABLE
-
The speculation feature is disabled, mitigation is enabled.
- PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE
-
Same as
PR_SPEC_DISABLE
but cannot be undone.
- PR_SPEC_DISABLE_NOEXEC (since Linux 5.1)
-
Same as
PR_SPEC_DISABLE,
but the state will be cleared on
execve(2).
-
If all bits are 0,
then the CPU is not affected by the speculation misfeature.
-
If
PR_SPEC_PRCTL
is set, then per-thread control of the mitigation is available.
If not set,
prctl()
for the speculation misfeature will fail.
-
The
arg3,
arg4,
and
arg5
arguments must be specified as 0; otherwise the call fails with the error
EINVAL.
- PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL (since Linux 4.17)
-
Sets the state of the speculation misfeature specified in
arg2.
The speculation-misfeature settings are per-thread attributes.
-
Currently,
arg2
must be one of:
-
- PR_SPEC_STORE_BYPASS
-
Set the state of the speculative store bypass misfeature.
- PR_SPEC_INDIRECT_BRANCH (since Linux 4.20)
-
Set the state of the indirect branch speculation misfeature.
-
If
arg2
does not have one of the above values,
then the call fails with the error
ENODEV.
-
The
arg3
argument is used to hand in the control value,
which is one of the following:
-
- PR_SPEC_ENABLE
-
The speculation feature is enabled, mitigation is disabled.
- PR_SPEC_DISABLE
-
The speculation feature is disabled, mitigation is enabled.
- PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE
-
Same as
PR_SPEC_DISABLE,
but cannot be undone.
A subsequent
prctl(arg2,
PR_SPEC_ENABLE)
with the same value for
arg2
will fail with the error
EPERM.
- PR_SPEC_DISABLE_NOEXEC (since Linux 5.1)
-
Same as
PR_SPEC_DISABLE,
but the state will be cleared on
execve(2).
Currently only supported for
arg2
equal to
PR_SPEC_STORE_BYPASS.
-
Any unsupported value in
arg3
will result in the call failing with the error
ERANGE.
-
The
arg4
and
arg5
arguments must be specified as 0; otherwise the call fails with the error
EINVAL.
-
The speculation feature can also be controlled by the
spec_store_bypass_disable
boot parameter.
This parameter may enforce a read-only policy which will result in the
prctl()
call failing with the error
ENXIO.
For further details, see the kernel source file
Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt.
- PR_SVE_SET_VL (since Linux 4.15, only on arm64)
-
Configure the thread's SVE vector length,
as specified by
(int) arg2.
Arguments
arg3, arg4, and arg5
are ignored.
-
The bits of
arg2
corresponding to
PR_SVE_VL_LEN_MASK
must be set to the desired vector length in bytes.
This is interpreted as an upper bound:
the kernel will select the greatest available vector length
that does not exceed the value specified.
In particular, specifying
SVE_VL_MAX
(defined in
<asm/sigcontext.h>)
for the
PR_SVE_VL_LEN_MASK
bits requests the maximum supported vector length.
-
In addition, the other bits of
arg2
must be set to one of the following combinations of flags:
-
- 0
-
Perform the change immediately.
At the next
execve(2)
in the thread,
the vector length will be reset to the value configured in
/proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length.
- PR_SVE_VL_INHERIT
-
Perform the change immediately.
Subsequent
execve(2)
calls will preserve the new vector length.
- PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC
-
Defer the change, so that it is performed at the next
execve(2)
in the thread.
Further
execve(2)
calls will reset the vector length to the value configured in
/proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length.
- PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC | PR_SVE_VL_INHERIT
-
Defer the change, so that it is performed at the next
execve(2)
in the thread.
Further
execve(2)
calls will preserve the new vector length.
-
In all cases,
any previously pending deferred change is canceled.
-
The call fails with error
EINVAL
if SVE is not supported on the platform, if
arg2
is unrecognized or invalid, or the value in the bits of
arg2
corresponding to
PR_SVE_VL_LEN_MASK
is outside the range
SVE_VL_MIN..SVE_VL_MAX
or is not a multiple of 16.
-
On success,
a nonnegative value is returned that describes the
selected
configuration.
If
PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC
was included in
arg2,
then the configuration described by the return value
will take effect at the next
execve().
Otherwise, the configuration is already in effect when the
PR_SVE_SET_VL
call returns.
In either case, the value is encoded in the same way as the return value of
PR_SVE_GET_VL.
Note that there is no explicit flag in the return value
corresponding to
PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC.
-
The configuration (including any pending deferred change)
is inherited across
fork(2)
and
clone(2).
-
For more information, see the kernel source file
Documentation/arm64/sve.rst
(or
Documentation/arm64/sve.txt
before Linux 5.3).
-
Warning:
Because the compiler or run-time environment
may be using SVE, using this call without the
PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC
flag may crash the calling process.
The conditions for using it safely are complex and system-dependent.
Don't use it unless you really know what you are doing.
- PR_SVE_GET_VL (since Linux 4.15, only on arm64)
-
Get the thread's current SVE vector length configuration.
-
Arguments
arg2, arg3, arg4, and arg5
are ignored.
-
Provided that the kernel and platform support SVE,
this operation always succeeds,
returning a nonnegative value that describes the
current
configuration.
The bits corresponding to
PR_SVE_VL_LEN_MASK
contain the currently configured vector length in bytes.
The bit corresponding to
PR_SVE_VL_INHERIT
indicates whether the vector length will be inherited
across
execve(2).
-
Note that there is no way to determine whether there is
a pending vector length change that has not yet taken effect.
-
For more information, see the kernel source file
Documentation/arm64/sve.rst
(or
Documentation/arm64/sve.txt
before Linux 5.3).
-
-
PR_SET_SYSCALL_USER_DISPATCH (since Linux 5.11, x86 only)
Configure the Syscall User Dispatch mechanism
for the calling thread.
This mechanism allows an application
to selectively intercept system calls
so that they can be handled within the application itself.
Interception takes the form of a thread-directed
SIGSYS
signal that is delivered to the thread
when it makes a system call.
If intercepted,
the system call is not executed by the kernel.
-
To enable this mechanism,
arg2
should be set to
PR_SYS_DISPATCH_ON.
Once enabled, further system calls will be selectively intercepted,
depending on a control variable provided by user space.
In this case,
arg3
and
arg4
respectively identify the
offset
and
length
of a single contiguous memory region in the process address space
from where system calls are always allowed to be executed,
regardless of the control variable.
(Typically, this area would include the area of memory
containing the C library.)
-
arg5
points to a char-sized variable
that is a fast switch to allow/block system call execution
without the overhead of doing another system call
to re-configure Syscall User Dispatch.
This control variable can either be set to
SYSCALL_DISPATCH_FILTER_BLOCK
to block system calls from executing
or to
SYSCALL_DISPATCH_FILTER_ALLOW
to temporarily allow them to be executed.
This value is checked by the kernel
on every system call entry,
and any unexpected value will raise
an uncatchable
SIGSYS
at that time,
killing the application.
-
When a system call is intercepted,
the kernel sends a thread-directed
SIGSYS
signal to the triggering thread.
Various fields will be set in the
siginfo_t
structure (see
sigaction(2))
associated with the signal:
-
- *
-
si_signo
will contain
SIGSYS.
- *
-
si_call_addr
will show the address of the system call instruction.
- *
-
si_syscall
and
si_arch
will indicate which system call was attempted.
- *
-
si_code
will contain
SYS_USER_DISPATCH.
- *
-
si_errno
will be set to 0.
-
The program counter will be as though the system call happened
(i.e., the program counter will not point to the system call instruction).
-
When the signal handler returns to the kernel,
the system call completes immediately
and returns to the calling thread,
without actually being executed.
If necessary
(i.e., when emulating the system call on user space.),
the signal handler should set the system call return value
to a sane value,
by modifying the register context stored in the
ucontext
argument of the signal handler.
See
sigaction(2),
sigreturn(2),
and
getcontext(3)
for more information.
-
If
arg2
is set to
PR_SYS_DISPATCH_OFF,
Syscall User Dispatch is disabled for that thread.
the remaining arguments must be set to 0.
-
The setting is not preserved across
fork(2),
clone(2),
or
execve(2).
-
For more information,
see the kernel source file
Documentation/admin-guide/syscall-user-dispatch.rst
- PR_SET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL (since Linux 5.4, only on arm64)
-
Controls support for passing tagged user-space addresses to the kernel
(i.e., addresses where bits 56---63 are not all zero).
-
The level of support is selected by
arg2,
which can be one of the following:
-
- 0
-
Addresses that are passed
for the purpose of being dereferenced by the kernel
must be untagged.
- PR_TAGGED_ADDR_ENABLE
-
Addresses that are passed
for the purpose of being dereferenced by the kernel
may be tagged, with the exceptions summarized below.
-
The remaining arguments
arg3, arg4, and arg5
must all be zero.
-
On success, the mode specified in
arg2
is set for the calling thread and the return value is 0.
If the arguments are invalid,
the mode specified in
arg2
is unrecognized,
or if this feature is unsupported by the kernel
or disabled via
/proc/sys/abi/tagged_addr_disabled,
the call fails with the error
EINVAL.
-
In particular, if
prctl(PR_SET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL,
0, 0, 0, 0)
fails with
EINVAL,
then all addresses passed to the kernel must be untagged.
-
Irrespective of which mode is set,
addresses passed to certain interfaces
must always be untagged:
-
- •
-
brk(2),
mmap(2),
shmat(2),
shmdt(2),
and the
new_address
argument of
mremap(2).
-
(Prior to Linux 5.6 these accepted tagged addresses,
but the behaviour may not be what you expect.
Don't rely on it.)
- •
-
'polymorphic' interfaces
that accept pointers to arbitrary types cast to a
void *
or other generic type, specifically
prctl(),
ioctl(2),
and in general
setsockopt(2)
(only certain specific
setsockopt(2)
options allow tagged addresses).
-
This list of exclusions may shrink
when moving from one kernel version to a later kernel version.
While the kernel may make some guarantees
for backwards compatibility reasons,
for the purposes of new software
the effect of passing tagged addresses to these interfaces
is unspecified.
-
The mode set by this call is inherited across
fork(2)
and
clone(2).
The mode is reset by
execve(2)
to 0
(i.e., tagged addresses not permitted in the user/kernel ABI).
-
For more information, see the kernel source file
Documentation/arm64/tagged-address-abi.rst.
-
Warning:
This call is primarily intended for use by the run-time environment.
A successful
PR_SET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL
call elsewhere may crash the calling process.
The conditions for using it safely are complex and system-dependent.
Don't use it unless you know what you are doing.
- PR_GET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL (since Linux 5.4, only on arm64)
-
Returns the current tagged address mode
for the calling thread.
-
Arguments
arg2, arg3, arg4, and arg5
must all be zero.
-
If the arguments are invalid
or this feature is disabled or unsupported by the kernel,
the call fails with
EINVAL.
In particular, if
prctl(PR_GET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL,
0, 0, 0, 0)
fails with
EINVAL,
then this feature is definitely either unsupported,
or disabled via
/proc/sys/abi/tagged_addr_disabled.
In this case,
all addresses passed to the kernel must be untagged.
-
Otherwise, the call returns a nonnegative value
describing the current tagged address mode,
encoded in the same way as the
arg2
argument of
PR_SET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL.
-
For more information, see the kernel source file
Documentation/arm64/tagged-address-abi.rst.
- PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_DISABLE (since Linux 2.6.31)
-
Disable all performance counters attached to the calling process,
regardless of whether the counters were created by
this process or another process.
Performance counters created by the calling process for other
processes are unaffected.
For more information on performance counters, see the Linux kernel source file
tools/perf/design.txt.
-
Originally called
PR_TASK_PERF_COUNTERS_DISABLE;
renamed (retaining the same numerical value)
in Linux 2.6.32.
- PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_ENABLE (since Linux 2.6.31)
-
The converse of
PR_TASK_PERF_EVENTS_DISABLE;
enable performance counters attached to the calling process.
-
Originally called
PR_TASK_PERF_COUNTERS_ENABLE;
renamed
in Linux 2.6.32.
- PR_SET_THP_DISABLE (since Linux 3.15)
-
Set the state of the "THP disable" flag for the calling thread.
If
arg2
has a nonzero value, the flag is set, otherwise it is cleared.
Setting this flag provides a method
for disabling transparent huge pages
for jobs where the code cannot be modified, and using a malloc hook with
madvise(2)
is not an option (i.e., statically allocated data).
The setting of the "THP disable" flag is inherited by a child created via
fork(2)
and is preserved across
execve(2).
- PR_GET_THP_DISABLE (since Linux 3.15)
-
Return (as the function result) the current setting of the "THP disable"
flag for the calling thread:
either 1, if the flag is set, or 0, if it is not.
- PR_GET_TID_ADDRESS (since Linux 3.5)
-
Return the
clear_child_tid
address set by
set_tid_address(2)
and the
clone(2)
CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID
flag, in the location pointed to by
(int **) arg2.
This feature is available only if the kernel is built with the
CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE
option enabled.
Note that since the
prctl()
system call does not have a compat implementation for
the AMD64 x32 and MIPS n32 ABIs,
and the kernel writes out a pointer using the kernel's pointer size,
this operation expects a user-space buffer of 8 (not 4) bytes on these ABIs.
- PR_SET_TIMERSLACK (since Linux 2.6.28)
-
Each thread has two associated timer slack values:
a "default" value, and a "current" value.
This operation sets the "current" timer slack value for the calling thread.
arg2
is an unsigned long value, then maximum "current" value is ULONG_MAX and
the minimum "current" value is 1.
If the nanosecond value supplied in
arg2
is greater than zero, then the "current" value is set to this value.
If
arg2
is equal to zero,
the "current" timer slack is reset to the
thread's "default" timer slack value.
-
The "current" timer slack is used by the kernel to group timer expirations
for the calling thread that are close to one another;
as a consequence, timer expirations for the thread may be
up to the specified number of nanoseconds late (but will never expire early).
Grouping timer expirations can help reduce system power consumption
by minimizing CPU wake-ups.
-
The timer expirations affected by timer slack are those set by
select(2),
pselect(2),
poll(2),
ppoll(2),
epoll_wait(2),
epoll_pwait(2),
clock_nanosleep(2),
nanosleep(2),
and
futex(2)
(and thus the library functions implemented via futexes, including
pthread_cond_timedwait(3),
pthread_mutex_timedlock(3),
pthread_rwlock_timedrdlock(3),
pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock(3),
and
sem_timedwait(3)).
-
Timer slack is not applied to threads that are scheduled under
a real-time scheduling policy (see
sched_setscheduler(2)).
-
When a new thread is created,
the two timer slack values are made the same as the "current" value
of the creating thread.
Thereafter, a thread can adjust its "current" timer slack value via
PR_SET_TIMERSLACK.
The "default" value can't be changed.
The timer slack values of
init
(PID 1), the ancestor of all processes,
are 50,000 nanoseconds (50 microseconds).
The timer slack value is inherited by a child created via
fork(2),
and is preserved across
execve(2).
-
Since Linux 4.6, the "current" timer slack value of any process
can be examined and changed via the file
/proc/[pid]/timerslack_ns.
See
proc(5).
- PR_GET_TIMERSLACK (since Linux 2.6.28)
-
Return (as the function result)
the "current" timer slack value of the calling thread.
- PR_SET_TIMING (since Linux 2.6.0)
-
Set whether to use (normal, traditional) statistical process timing or
accurate timestamp-based process timing, by passing
PR_TIMING_STATISTICAL
or
PR_TIMING_TIMESTAMP
to arg2.
PR_TIMING_TIMESTAMP
is not currently implemented
(attempting to set this mode will yield the error
EINVAL).
- PR_GET_TIMING (since Linux 2.6.0)
-
Return (as the function result) which process timing method is currently
in use.
- PR_SET_TSC (since Linux 2.6.26, x86 only)
-
Set the state of the flag determining whether the timestamp counter
can be read by the process.
Pass
PR_TSC_ENABLE
to
arg2
to allow it to be read, or
PR_TSC_SIGSEGV
to generate a
SIGSEGV
when the process tries to read the timestamp counter.
- PR_GET_TSC (since Linux 2.6.26, x86 only)
-
Return the state of the flag determining whether the timestamp counter
can be read,
in the location pointed to by
(int *) arg2.
- PR_SET_UNALIGN
-
(Only on: ia64, since Linux 2.3.48; parisc, since Linux 2.6.15;
PowerPC, since Linux 2.6.18; Alpha, since Linux 2.6.22;
sh, since Linux 2.6.34; tile, since Linux 3.12)
Set unaligned access control bits to arg2.
Pass
PR_UNALIGN_NOPRINT to silently fix up unaligned user accesses,
or PR_UNALIGN_SIGBUS to generate
SIGBUS
on unaligned user access.
Alpha also supports an additional flag with the value
of 4 and no corresponding named constant,
which instructs kernel to not fix up
unaligned accesses (it is analogous to providing the
UAC_NOFIX
flag in
SSI_NVPAIRS
operation of the
setsysinfo()
system call on Tru64).
- PR_GET_UNALIGN
-
(See
PR_SET_UNALIGN
for information on versions and architectures.)
Return unaligned access control bits, in the location pointed to by
(unsigned int *) arg2.
RETURN VALUE
On success,
PR_CAP_AMBIENT+PR_CAP_AMBIENT_IS_SET,
PR_CAPBSET_READ,
PR_GET_DUMPABLE,
PR_GET_FP_MODE,
PR_GET_IO_FLUSHER,
PR_GET_KEEPCAPS,
PR_MCE_KILL_GET,
PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS,
PR_GET_SECUREBITS,
PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL,
PR_SVE_GET_VL,
PR_SVE_SET_VL,
PR_GET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL,
PR_GET_THP_DISABLE,
PR_GET_TIMING,
PR_GET_TIMERSLACK,
and (if it returns)
PR_GET_SECCOMP
return the nonnegative values described above.
All other
option
values return 0 on success.
On error, -1 is returned, and
errno
is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
- EACCES
-
option
is
PR_SET_SECCOMP
and
arg2
is
SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER,
but the process does not have the
CAP_SYS_ADMIN
capability or has not set the
no_new_privs
attribute (see the discussion of
PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS
above).
- EACCES
-
option
is
PR_SET_MM,
and
arg3
is
PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE,
the file is not executable.
- EBADF
-
option
is
PR_SET_MM,
arg3
is
PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE,
and the file descriptor passed in
arg4
is not valid.
- EBUSY
-
option
is
PR_SET_MM,
arg3
is
PR_SET_MM_EXE_FILE,
and this the second attempt to change the
/proc/pid/exe
symbolic link, which is prohibited.
- EFAULT
-
arg2
is an invalid address.
- EFAULT
-
option
is
PR_SET_SECCOMP,
arg2
is
SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER,
the system was built with
CONFIG_SECCOMP_FILTER,
and
arg3
is an invalid address.
- EFAULT
-
option
is
PR_SET_SYSCALL_USER_DISPATCH
and
arg5
has an invalid address.
- EINVAL
-
The value of
option
is not recognized,
or not supported on this system.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_MCE_KILL
or
PR_MCE_KILL_GET
or
PR_SET_MM,
and unused
prctl()
arguments were not specified as zero.
- EINVAL
-
arg2
is not valid value for this
option.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_SECCOMP
or
PR_GET_SECCOMP,
and the kernel was not configured with
CONFIG_SECCOMP.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_SECCOMP,
arg2
is
SECCOMP_MODE_FILTER,
and the kernel was not configured with
CONFIG_SECCOMP_FILTER.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_MM,
and one of the following is true
-
- *
-
arg4
or
arg5
is nonzero;
- *
-
arg3
is greater than
TASK_SIZE
(the limit on the size of the user address space for this architecture);
- *
-
arg2
is
PR_SET_MM_START_CODE,
PR_SET_MM_END_CODE,
PR_SET_MM_START_DATA,
PR_SET_MM_END_DATA,
or
PR_SET_MM_START_STACK,
and the permissions of the corresponding memory area are not as required;
- *
-
arg2
is
PR_SET_MM_START_BRK
or
PR_SET_MM_BRK,
and
arg3
is less than or equal to the end of the data segment
or specifies a value that would cause the
RLIMIT_DATA
resource limit to be exceeded.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_PTRACER
and
arg2
is not 0,
PR_SET_PTRACER_ANY,
or the PID of an existing process.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_PDEATHSIG
and
arg2
is not a valid signal number.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_DUMPABLE
and
arg2
is neither
SUID_DUMP_DISABLE
nor
SUID_DUMP_USER.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_TIMING
and
arg2
is not
PR_TIMING_STATISTICAL.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_NO_NEW_PRIVS
and
arg2
is not equal to 1
or
arg3,
arg4,
or
arg5
is nonzero.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_GET_NO_NEW_PRIVS
and
arg2,
arg3,
arg4,
or
arg5
is nonzero.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_THP_DISABLE
and
arg3,
arg4,
or
arg5
is nonzero.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_GET_THP_DISABLE
and
arg2,
arg3,
arg4,
or
arg5
is nonzero.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_CAP_AMBIENT
and an unused argument
(arg4,
arg5,
or,
in the case of
PR_CAP_AMBIENT_CLEAR_ALL,
arg3)
is nonzero; or
arg2
has an invalid value;
or
arg2
is
PR_CAP_AMBIENT_LOWER,
PR_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE,
or
PR_CAP_AMBIENT_IS_SET
and
arg3
does not specify a valid capability.
- EINVAL
-
option
was
PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL
or
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL
and unused arguments to
prctl()
are not 0.
EINVAL
option
is
PR_PAC_RESET_KEYS
and the arguments are invalid or unsupported.
See the description of
PR_PAC_RESET_KEYS
above for details.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SVE_SET_VL
and the arguments are invalid or unsupported,
or SVE is not available on this platform.
See the description of
PR_SVE_SET_VL
above for details.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SVE_GET_VL
and SVE is not available on this platform.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_SYSCALL_USER_DISPATCH
and one of the following is true:
-
- *
-
arg2
is
PR_SYS_DISPATCH_OFF
and the remaining arguments are not 0;
- *
-
arg2
is
PR_SYS_DISPATCH_ON
and the memory range specified is outside the
address space of the process.
- *
-
arg2
is invalid.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_SET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL
and the arguments are invalid or unsupported.
See the description of
PR_SET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL
above for details.
- EINVAL
-
option
is
PR_GET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL
and the arguments are invalid or unsupported.
See the description of
PR_GET_TAGGED_ADDR_CTRL
above for details.
- ENODEV
-
option
was
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL
the kernel or CPU does not support the requested speculation misfeature.
- ENXIO
-
option
was
PR_MPX_ENABLE_MANAGEMENT
or
PR_MPX_DISABLE_MANAGEMENT
and the kernel or the CPU does not support MPX management.
Check that the kernel and processor have MPX support.
- ENXIO
-
option
was
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL
implies that the control of the selected speculation misfeature is not possible.
See
PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL
for the bit fields to determine which option is available.
- EOPNOTSUPP
-
option
is
PR_SET_FP_MODE
and
arg2
has an invalid or unsupported value.
- EPERM
-
option
is
PR_SET_SECUREBITS,
and the caller does not have the
CAP_SETPCAP
capability,
or tried to unset a "locked" flag,
or tried to set a flag whose corresponding locked flag was set
(see
capabilities(7)).
- EPERM
-
option
is
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL
wherein the speculation was disabled with
PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE
and caller tried to enable it again.
- EPERM
-
option
is
PR_SET_KEEPCAPS,
and the caller's
SECBIT_KEEP_CAPS_LOCKED
flag is set
(see
capabilities(7)).
- EPERM
-
option
is
PR_CAPBSET_DROP,
and the caller does not have the
CAP_SETPCAP
capability.
- EPERM
-
option
is
PR_SET_MM,
and the caller does not have the
CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
capability.
- EPERM
-
option
is
PR_CAP_AMBIENT
and
arg2
is
PR_CAP_AMBIENT_RAISE,
but either the capability specified in
arg3
is not present in the process's permitted and inheritable capability sets,
or the
PR_CAP_AMBIENT_LOWER
securebit has been set.
- ERANGE
-
option
was
PR_SET_SPECULATION_CTRL
and
arg3
is not
PR_SPEC_ENABLE,
PR_SPEC_DISABLE,
PR_SPEC_FORCE_DISABLE,
nor
PR_SPEC_DISABLE_NOEXEC.
VERSIONS
The
prctl()
system call was introduced in Linux 2.1.57.
CONFORMING TO
This call is Linux-specific.
IRIX has a
prctl()
system call (also introduced in Linux 2.1.44
as irix_prctl on the MIPS architecture),
with prototype
ptrdiff_t prctl(int option, int arg2, int arg3);
and options to get the maximum number of processes per user,
get the maximum number of processors the calling process can use,
find out whether a specified process is currently blocked,
get or set the maximum stack size, and so on.
SEE ALSO
signal(2),
core(5)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 5.11 of the Linux
man-pages
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- ERRORS
-
- VERSIONS
-
- CONFORMING TO
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- COLOPHON
-
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Time: 06:22:44 GMT, May 09, 2021