Comment 8 for bug 1531747

Hmm. In this case it's really the kernel that is writing the xattr, so in that case #2 kind of makes sense. It's also more than a bit scary, assigning CAP_SYS_ADMIN in init_user_ns to a task from a user namespace. Now we're already doing it for unprivileged users in init_user_ns which isn't all that different, except for the fact that in the user namespace that unprivileged user can also create the overlay mount, and that leaves me feeling a bit uneasy. I'm not familiar enough with overlayfs to decide whether or not this really presents an opportunity for someone to do something malicious to the lower fs.

With #1, I don't think we have a way to distinguish between overlayfs trying to write this xattr and userspace writing it directly, do we? This also might present an opportunity for a user to do something mildly malicious.

I can't comment on #3, I just don't know enough about overlayfs.

I don't really any other ideas. #2 seems the most logical to me if we can be sure that it's safe.