lkml.org 
[lkml]   [1999]   [Oct]   [26]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
Date
From
SubjectRe: Sealing the kernel
> from root.  Sure you can keep them out of the kernel level stuff.  But
> what good is that really? The root user could still do nasty things to
> your system regardless.

Ultimately, I think sealing the kernel just makes _subtle_ "nasty things"
more difficult. System crashes from a hostile root are probably
unavoidable but what won't be possible is loading a 'stealth module' which
hides some set of processes and files from all user-land utilities without
crashing. If we can boot off a readonly media, this denial of subtle
nastiness can be extended across reboots.

I don't really fear random crackers who make their presence known
immediately. I tend to fear the ones who don't make their presence known.

The alternative is to build a kernel without module support and /dev/mem
disallowed. That's a bit awkward for some situations (do you really want
to compile a new kernel for every single different machine?) and just
won't work well for others (pcmcia without modules is impractical).

-John


-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2005-03-22 13:54    [W:0.039 / U:0.776 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site