Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:51:17 -0500 (EST) | From | Gerhard Mack <> | Subject | Re: security: delete BIOS password in keyboard buffer during kernel bootup |
| |
On Tue, 11 Nov 2008, Alan Cox wrote:
> Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:54:21 +0000 > From: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> > To: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz> > Cc: mathias.schnarrenberger@gmx.de, Olaf van der Spek <olafvdspek@gmail.com>, > linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > Subject: Re: security: delete BIOS password in keyboard buffer during kernel > bootup > > > OTOH we don't call BIOS from linux, so we assume that low 64K is > > usable memory (unless marked otherwise in memmap, I guess). > > We use the BIOS in some cases for PCI routing, PCI services, APM, and > indirectly for SMM traps, ACPI and via user space for other stuff. So we > preserve the bottom 4K for the BIOS 0x40:xx page > > > > Anyway, proper place to do clearing is bootloader; it interacts with > > bios already, anyway... > > Agreed entirely.
Best place would be for the OEM to fix it. If it's a security issue it shouldn't be overly difficult to embarass them into a fix.
Gerhard
-- Gerhard Mack
gmack@innerfire.net
<>< As a computer I find your faith in technology amusing.
| |