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SubjectRe: 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.


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