btrfs-progs: better document btrfs receive security

This adds some extra documentation to the btrfs-receive manpage that
explains some of the security related aspects of btrfs-receive.  The
first part covers the fact that the subvolume being received is writable
until the receive finishes, and the second covers the current lack of
sanity checking of the send stream.

Signed-off-by: Austin S. Hemmelgarn <ahferroin7@gmail.com>
Suggested-by: Graham Cobb <g.btrfs@cobb.uk.net>
Signed-off-by: David Sterba <dsterba@suse.com>

diff --git a/Documentation/btrfs-receive.asciidoc b/Documentation/btrfs-receive.asciidoc
index 6be4aa6..822b268 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/btrfs-receive.asciidoc
+++ b/Documentation/btrfs-receive.asciidoc
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ the stream, and print the stream metadata, one operation per line.
 
 3. default subvolume has changed or you didn't mount the filesystem at the toplevel subvolume
 
-A subvolume is made read-only after the receiving process finishes succesfully.
+A subvolume is made read-only after the receiving process finishes succesfully (see BUGS below).
 
 `Options`
 
@@ -68,6 +68,26 @@ dump the stream metadata, one line per operation
 +
 Does not require the 'path' parameter. The filesystem chanded.
 
+BUGS
+----
+*btrfs receive* sets the subvolume read-only after it completes
+successfully.  However, while the receive is in progress, users who have
+write access to files or directories in the receiving 'path' can add,
+remove, or modify files, in which case the resulting read-only subvolume
+will not be an exact copy of the sent subvolume.
+
+If the intention is to create an exact copy, the receiving 'path'
+should be protected from access by users until the receive operation
+has completed and the subvolume is set to read-only.
+
+Additionally, receive does not currently do a very good job of validating
+that an incremental send streams actually makes sense, and it is thus
+possible for a specially crafted send stream to create a subvolume with
+reflinks to arbitrary files in the same filesystem.  Because of this,
+users are advised to not use *btrfs receive* on send streams from
+untrusted sources, and to protect trusted streams when sending them
+across untrusted networks.
+
 EXIT STATUS
 -----------
 *btrfs receive* returns a zero exit status if it succeeds. Non zero is