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NAME

       capget, capset - set/get capabilities of thread(s)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/capability.h>

       int capget(cap_user_header_t hdrp, cap_user_data_t datap);

       int capset(cap_user_header_t hdrp, const cap_user_data_t datap);

DESCRIPTION

       These  two  system  calls  are  the  raw  kernel  interface for getting and setting thread
       capabilities.  Not only are these system calls specific to Linux, but the  kernel  API  is
       likely  to  change  and  use  of  these  system  calls  (in  particular  the format of the
       cap_user_*_t types) is subject to extension with each kernel revision,  but  old  programs
       will keep working.

       The  portable  interfaces are cap_set_proc(3) and cap_get_proc(3); if possible, you should
       use those interfaces in applications.

   Current details
       Now that you have been warned, some current kernel details.  The structures are defined as
       follows.

           #define _LINUX_CAPABILITY_VERSION_1  0x19980330
           #define _LINUX_CAPABILITY_U32S_1     1

                   /* V2 added in Linux 2.6.25; deprecated */
           #define _LINUX_CAPABILITY_VERSION_2  0x20071026
           #define _LINUX_CAPABILITY_U32S_2     2

                   /* V3 added in Linux 2.6.26 */
           #define _LINUX_CAPABILITY_VERSION_3  0x20080522
           #define _LINUX_CAPABILITY_U32S_3     2

           typedef struct __user_cap_header_struct {
              __u32 version;
              int pid;
           } *cap_user_header_t;

           typedef struct __user_cap_data_struct {
              __u32 effective;
              __u32 permitted;
              __u32 inheritable;
           } *cap_user_data_t;

       The effective, permitted, and inheritable fields are bit masks of the capabilities defined
       in capabilities(7).  Note that the CAP_* values are bit indexes and need to be bit-shifted
       before  ORing  into  the  bit  fields.  To define the structures for passing to the system
       call,   you   have   to   use   the    struct    __user_cap_header_struct    and    struct
       __user_cap_data_struct names because the typedefs are only pointers.

       Kernels     prior     to     2.6.25    prefer    32-bit    capabilities    with    version
       _LINUX_CAPABILITY_VERSION_1.  Linux 2.6.25 added  64-bit  capability  sets,  with  version
       _LINUX_CAPABILITY_VERSION_2.   There  was,  however, an API glitch, and Linux 2.6.26 added
       _LINUX_CAPABILITY_VERSION_3 to fix the problem.

       Note that 64-bit capabilities use datap[0] and datap[1], whereas 32-bit  capabilities  use
       only datap[0].

       On  kernels  that support file capabilities (VFS capabilities support), these system calls
       behave slightly differently.  This support was added as an option  in  Linux  2.6.24,  and
       became fixed (nonoptional) in Linux 2.6.33.

       For  capget()  calls,  one  can  probe  the  capabilities of any process by specifying its
       process ID with the hdrp->pid field value.

       For details on the data, see capabilities(7).

   With VFS capabilities support
       VFS capabilities employ a file extended attribute (see xattr(7)) to allow capabilities  to
       be attached to executables.  This privilege model obsoletes kernel support for one process
       asynchronously setting the capabilities of another.  That is, on  kernels  that  have  VFS
       capabilities support, when calling capset(), the only permitted values for hdrp->pid are 0
       or, equivalently, the value returned by gettid(2).

   Without VFS capabilities support
       On older kernels that do not provide VFS capabilities support capset() can, if the  caller
       has  the CAP_SETPCAP capability, be used to change not only the caller's own capabilities,
       but also the capabilities of other threads.  The call operates on the capabilities of  the
       thread  specified by the pid field of hdrp when that is nonzero, or on the capabilities of
       the calling thread if pid is 0.  If pid refers to a single-threaded process, then pid  can
       be specified as a traditional process ID; operating on a thread of a multithreaded process
       requires a thread ID of the type returned by gettid(2).  For capset(), pid  can  also  be:
       -1,  meaning  perform  the change on all threads except the caller and init(1); or a value
       less than -1, in which case the change is applied to all  members  of  the  process  group
       whose ID is -pid.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

       The  calls  fail  with  the  error EINVAL, and set the version field of hdrp to the kernel
       preferred value of _LINUX_CAPABILITY_VERSION_?   when  an  unsupported  version  value  is
       specified.  In this way, one can probe what the current preferred capability revision is.

ERRORS

       EFAULT Bad  memory  address.  hdrp must not be NULL.  datap may be NULL only when the user
              is trying to determine the preferred capability version  format  supported  by  the
              kernel.

       EINVAL One of the arguments was invalid.

       EPERM  An  attempt  was  made  to  add  a  capability  to  the  permitted set, or to set a
              capability in the effective set that is not in the permitted set.

       EPERM  An attempt was made to add a capability to the inheritable set, and either:

              *  that capability was not in the caller's bounding set; or

              *  the capability was not in the caller's permitted set and the caller  lacked  the
                 CAP_SETPCAP capability in its effective set.

       EPERM  The  caller  attempted to use capset() to modify the capabilities of a thread other
              than  itself,  but  lacked  sufficient  privilege.   For  kernels  supporting   VFS
              capabilities,  this  is  never  permitted.   For  kernels  lacking VFS support, the
              CAP_SETPCAP capability is required.  (A bug in kernels  before  2.6.11  meant  that
              this error could also occur if a thread without this capability tried to change its
              own capabilities by specifying the pid field as a nonzero value  (i.e.,  the  value
              returned by getpid(2)) instead of 0.)

       ESRCH  No such thread.

CONFORMING TO

       These system calls are Linux-specific.

NOTES

       The portable interface to the capability querying and setting functions is provided by the
       libcap library and is available here:
       ⟨http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/morgan/libcap.git

SEE ALSO

       clone(2), gettid(2), capabilities(7)

COLOPHON

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