qubes-doc/Qrexec.md

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Command execution in VM (and Qubes RPC)

In order to manage VMs easily, there is a need for a mechanism to allow dom0 to force command execution in a VM. For instance, when user selects from KDE menu an application, it should be started in the selected VM. Also it is often useful to be able to pass stdin/stdout/stderr from an application running in VM to dom0.

Qrexec basics

During domain creation a process named qrexec-daemon is started in dom0, and a process named qrexec-agent is started in the VM. They are connected over vchan channel. qrexec-daemon listens on the the unix socket /var/run/qubes/qrexec.XID for connections from dom0 utility named qrexec-client. Typically, the first thing that a qrexec-client instance does is to send a request to qrexec-agent to start a process (let's name it VMprocess) with a given command line. Since then, stdin/stdout/stderr from the VMprocess is passed via qrexec-daemon and qrexec-agent to the qrexec-client process.

So, for example, executing in dom0

qrexec-client -d someVM user:bash//

allows to work with the remote shell. The string before first semicolon specifies what user to run the command as. Adding -e on the qrexec-client command line results in mere command execution (no data passing), and qrexec-client exits immediately after sending the execution request. There is also the -l local_program flag - with it, qrexec-client passes stdin/stdout of the remote program not to its stdin/stdout, but to the (spawned for this purpose) local_program.

The qvm-run command is heavily based on qrexec-client. It also takes care for additional activities, e.g. starting the domain if it is not up yet, and starting the GUI daemon. Thus, it is usually more convenient to use qvm-run.

There can be almost arbitrary number of qrexec-client processes for a domain (so, connected to the same qrexec-daemon, same domain) - their data is multiplexed independently.

Qubes RPC basics

Some tasks (like intervm file copy) share the same rpc-like structure: a process in one VM (say, file sender) needs to invoke and pass/receive data to some process in other VM (say, file receiver). Thus, the Qubes RPC framework was written, facilitating such actions.

Obviously, such interVM communication must be tightly controlled, to prevent one VM from taking control over other, possibly more privileged, VM. Therefore the design decision was made to pass all communication via dom0, that can enforce proper authorization. Then, it is natural to reuse the already-existing qrexec framework. As basically it provides only dom0<->VM channel, then we need to glue two qrexec connections in order to provide VM<->VM channel.

Also, note that bare qrexec provides VM<->dom0 connectivity, but the command execution is always initiated by dom0. There are cases when VM needs to invoke and send data to a command in dom0 (e.g. to pass information on newly installed .desktop files). Thus, the framework allows dom0 to be the rpc target as well.

Thanks to the framework, RPC programs are very simple - both rpc client and server just use their stdin/stdout to pass data. The framework does all the inner work to connect these file descriptors to each other via qrexec-daemon and qrexec-agent. Additionally, disposable VMs are tightly integrated - rpc to a disposableVM is identical to rpc to a normal domain, all one needs is to pass "$dispvm" as the remote domain name.

Qubes RPC administration

In dom0, there is a bunch of files in /etc/qubes-rpc/policy directory, whose names describe the available rpc actions; their content is the rpc access policy database. Currently defined actions are:

• qubes.Filecopy
• qubes.OpenInVM
• qubes.ReceiveUpdates?
• qubes.SyncAppMenus?
• qubes.VMShell
• qubes.ClipboardPaste?
• qubes.Gpg
• qubes.NotifyUpdates?
• qubes.PdfConvert?

These files contain lines with the following format:

srcvm destvm (allow|deny|ask)[,user=user_to_run_as][,target=VM_to_redirect_to]

You can specify srcvm and destvm by name, or by one of "$anyvm", "$dispvm", "dom0" reserved keywords (note string "dom0" does not match the $anyvm pattern; all other names do). Only "$anyvm" keyword makes sense in srcvm field (service calls from dom0 are currently always allowed, "$dispvm" means "new VM created for this particular request" - so it is never a source of request). Currently there is no way to specify source VM by type. Whenever a rpc request for action X is received, the first line in /etc/qubes-rpc/policy/X that match srcvm/destvm is consulted to determine whether to allow rpc, what user account the program should run in target VM under, and what VM to redirect the execution to. If the policy file does not exits, user is prompted to create one; if still there is no policy file after prompting, the action is denied.

On target VM, the /etc/qubes-rpc/RPC_ACTION_NAME must exist, containing the file name of the program that will be invoked.

On src VM, one should invoke the client via

/usr/lib/qubes/qrexec-client-vm target_vm_name RPC_ACTION_NAME rpc_client_path client arguments

Note that only stdin/stdout is passed between rpc server and client - notably, the no cmdline argument are passed. Source VM name is given by QREXEC_REMOTE_DOMAIN environment variable. By default, stderr of client and server is logged to respective /var/log/qubes/qrexec.XID files.

Be very careful when coding and adding a new rpc service. Unless the offered functionality equals full control over the target (it is the case with e.g. qubes.VMShell action), any vulnerability in a rpc server can be fatal to qubes security. On the other hand, this mechanism allows to delegate processing of untrusted input to less privileged (or throwaway) AppVMs, thus wise usage of it increases security.

Qubes RPC example

We will show the necessary files to create rpc call that adds two integers on the target and returns back the result to the invoker.

• rpc client code (/usr/bin/our_test_add_client)

  #!/bin/sh
  echo $1 $2    # pass data to rpc server
  exec cat >&$SAVED_FD_1 # print result to the original stdout, not to the other rpc endpoint
  

• rpc server code (/usr/bin/our_test_add_server)

  #!/bin/sh
  read arg1 arg2 # read from stdin, which is received from the rpc client
  echo $(($arg1+$arg2)) # print to stdout - so, pass to the rpc client
  

• policy file in dom0 (/etc/qubes-rpc/policy/test.Add )

  $anyvm $anyvm ask
  

• server path definition ( /etc/qubes-rpc/test.Add)

  /usr/bin/our_test_add_server
  

• invoke rpc via

  /usr/lib/qubes/qrexec-client-vm target_vm test.Add /usr/bin/our_test_add_client 1 2
  

and we should get "3" as answer, after dom0 allows it.

Qubes RPC internals

When an user in VM executes the /usr/lib/qubes/qrexec-client-vm utility, the following steps are taken:

• qrexec-client-vm connects to qrexec-agent's /var/run/qubes/qrexec-agent-fdpass unix socket 3 times. Reads 4 bytes from each of them, which is the fd number of the accepted socket in agent. These 3 integers, in text, concatenated, form "connection identifier" (CID)
• qrexec-client-vm writes to /var/run/qubes/qrexec-agent fifo a blob, consisting of target vmname, rpc action, and CID
• qrexec-client-vm executes the rpc client, passing the above mentioned unix sockets as process stdin/stdout, and optionally stderr (if the PASS_LOCAL_STDERR env variable is set)
• qrexec-agent passes the blob to qrexec-daemon, via MSG_AGENT_TO_SERVER_TRIGGER_CONNECT_EXISTING message over vchan
• qrexec-daemon executes qrexec-policy, passing source vmname, target vmname, rpc action, and CID as cmdline arguments
• qrexec-policy evaluates the policy file. If successful, creates a pair of qrexec-client processes, whose stdin/stdout are cross-connencted.
  • The first qrexec-client connects to the src VM, using the -c CID parameter, which results in not creating a new process, but connecting to the existing process file descriptors (these are the fds of unix socket created in step 1).
  • The second qrexec-client connects to the target VM, and executes qubes-rpc-multiplexer command there with the rpc action as the cmdline argument. Finally, qubes-rpc-multiplexer executes the correct rpc server on the target.
• In the above step, if the target VM is $dispvm, the dispvm is created via the qfile-daemon-dvm program. The latter waits for the qrexec-client process to exit, and then destroys the dispvm.

![No image "qubes_rpc.png" attached to Qrexec](/chrome/common/attachment.png "No image "qubes_rpc.png" attached to Qrexec")