tailfs: only impersonate unprivileged user if able to sudo -u as that user

When serving TailFS shares, tailscaled executes another tailscaled to act as a
file server. It attempts to execute this child process as an unprivileged user
using sudo -u. This is important to avoid accessing files as root, which would
result in potential privilege escalation.

Previously, tailscaled assumed that it was running as someone who can sudo -u,
and would fail if it was unable to sudo -u.

With this commit, if tailscaled is unable to sudo -u as the requested user, and
tailscaled is not running as root, then tailscaled executes the the file server
process under the same identity that ran tailscaled, since this is already an
unprivileged identity.

In the unlikely event that tailscaled is running as root but is unable to
sudo -u, it will refuse to run the child file server process in order to avoid
privilege escalation.

Updates tailscale/corp#16827

Signed-off-by: Percy Wegmann <percy@tailscale.com>

tailfs/tailfsimpl/remote_impl.go

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ package tailfsimpl
 
 import (
 	"bufio"
+	"context"
 	"encoding/hex"
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
@@ -15,6 +16,7 @@ import (
 	"net/url"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
+	"os/user"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
@@ -66,12 +68,21 @@ func (s *FileSystemForRemote) SetFileServerAddr(addr string) {
 func (s *FileSystemForRemote) SetShares(shares map[string]*tailfs.Share) {
 	userServers := make(map[string]*userServer)
 	if tailfs.AllowShareAs() {
-		// set up per-user server
+		// Set up per-user server by running the current executable as an
+		// unprivileged user in order to avoid privilege escalation.
+		executable, err := os.Executable()
+		if err != nil {
+			s.logf("can't find executable: %v", err)
+			return
+		}
+
 		for _, share := range shares {
 			p, found := userServers[share.As]
 			if !found {
 				p = &userServer{
-					logf: s.logf,
+					logf:       s.logf,
+					username:   share.As,
+					executable: executable,
 				}
 				userServers[share.As] = p
 			}
@@ -227,8 +238,10 @@ func (s *FileSystemForRemote) Close() error {
 // given Shares. All Shares are assumed to have the same Share.As, and the
 // content is served as that Share.As user.
 type userServer struct {
-	logf   logger.Logf
+	logf       logger.Logf
-	shares []*tailfs.Share
+	shares     []*tailfs.Share
+	username   string
+	executable string
 
 	// mu guards the below values. Acquire a write lock before updating any of
 	// them, acquire a read lock before reading any of them.
@@ -251,11 +264,6 @@ func (s *userServer) Close() error {
 }
 
 func (s *userServer) runLoop() {
-	executable, err := os.Executable()
-	if err != nil {
-		s.logf("can't find executable: %v", err)
-		return
-	}
 	maxSleepTime := 30 * time.Second
 	consecutiveFailures := float64(0)
 	var timeOfLastFailure time.Time
@@ -267,7 +275,7 @@ func (s *userServer) runLoop() {
 			return
 		}
 
-		err := s.run(executable)
+		err := s.run()
 		now := time.Now()
 		timeSinceLastFailure := now.Sub(timeOfLastFailure)
 		timeOfLastFailure = now
@@ -280,22 +288,37 @@ func (s *userServer) runLoop() {
 		if sleepTime > maxSleepTime {
 			sleepTime = maxSleepTime
 		}
-		s.logf("user server % v stopped with error %v, will try again in %v", executable, err, sleepTime)
+		s.logf("user server % v stopped with error %v, will try again in %v", s.executable, err, sleepTime)
 		time.Sleep(sleepTime)
 	}
 }
 
-// Run runs the executable (tailscaled). This function only works on UNIX systems,
+// Run runs the user server using the configured executable. This function only
-// but those are the only ones on which we use userServers anyway.
+// works on UNIX systems, but those are the only ones on which we use
-func (s *userServer) run(executable string) error {
+// userServers anyway.
+func (s *userServer) run() error {
 	// set up the command
 	args := []string{"serve-tailfs"}
 	for _, s := range s.shares {
 		args = append(args, s.Name, s.Path)
 	}
-	allArgs := []string{"-u", s.shares[0].As, executable}
+	var cmd *exec.Cmd
-	allArgs = append(allArgs, args...)
+	if s.canSudo() {
-	cmd := exec.Command("sudo", allArgs...)
+		s.logf("starting TailFS file server as user %q", s.username)
+		allArgs := []string{"-n", "-u", s.username, s.executable}
+		allArgs = append(allArgs, args...)
+		cmd = exec.Command("sudo", allArgs...)
+	} else {
+		// If we were root, we should have been able to sudo as a specific
+		// user, but let's check just to make sure, since we never want to
+		// access shared folders as root.
+		err := s.assertNotRoot()
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		s.logf("starting TailFS file server as ourselves")
+		cmd = exec.Command(s.executable, args...)
+	}
 	stdout, err := cmd.StdoutPipe()
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("stdout pipe: %w", err)
@@ -350,3 +373,32 @@ var writeMethods = map[string]bool{
 	"MOVE":      true,
 	"PROPPATCH": true,
 }
+
+// canSudo checks wether we can sudo -u the configured executable as the
+// configured user by attempting to call the executable with the '-h' flag to
+// print help.
+func (s *userServer) canSudo() bool {
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 3*time.Second)
+	defer cancel()
+	if err := exec.CommandContext(ctx, "sudo", "-n", "-u", s.username, s.executable, "-h").Run(); err != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	return true
+}
+
+// assertNotRoot returns an error if the current user has UID 0 or if we cannot
+// determine the current user.
+//
+// On Linux, root users will always have UID 0.
+//
+// On BSD, root users should always have UID 0.
+func (s *userServer) assertNotRoot() error {
+	u, err := user.Current()
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("assertNotRoot failed to find current user: %s", err)
+	}
+	if u.Uid == "0" {
+		return fmt.Errorf("%q is root", u.Name)
+	}
+	return nil
+}