# modinsert
[](https://travis-ci.org/lucab/modinsert-rs)
[](https://crates.io/crates/modinsert)
[](https://github.com/lucab/modinsert-rs)
[](https://docs.rs/modinsert)
A dirty module-loading library for the Linux kernel.
`modinsert` provides support for loading Linux kernel modules, in an "alternative" way.
This abuses Linux modules auto-loading mechanism to trick
the kernel into shelling out to the userspace `modprobe`
helper.
A [side-effect][dev_load] of `SIOCGIFINDEX` ioctl results in
the kernel looking up and loading arbitrary modules by name.
This isn't strictly a privilege escalation as the caller must
have `CAP_SYS_MODULE` capability; however it allows containerized
process to load modules in the host namespace.
This is a dirty mechanism, as the ioctl syscall will induce a
context-switch back from kernel-space to user-space to run
a host binary outside of caller context.
Typically this results in `modprobe` being called in the host,
however arbitrary binaries can be run by tweaking the usermode
helper sysctl at `/proc/sys/kernel/modprobe`.
See `modprobe(7)` for more documentation on kernel modules.
[dev_load]: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/v4.12/net/core/dev_ioctl.c#L372
## Example
```rust
//! Run this, then check `dmesg` for the effects.
//! It works also in containers, as long as the caller has `CAP_SYS_MODULE`.
extern crate modinsert;
use std::ffi::CString;
fn main() {
let modname = CString::new("rbd");
modinsert::try_load(&modname));
}
```
Some more examples are available under [examples](examples).
## License
Licensed under either of
* MIT license - <http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT>
* Apache License, Version 2.0 - <http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0>
at your option.