Re: Authoritative hooks updated to 2.4.13

From: Stephen Smalley (sdsat_private)
Date: Wed Oct 31 2001 - 09:43:28 PST

  • Next message: Casey Schaufler: "Re: Authoritative hooks updated to 2.4.13"

    On Wed, 31 Oct 2001, Casey Schaufler wrote:
    
    > Don't give me any of that crap. The differance has been
    > demonstrated to be neglegable. If we came in with authoritative
    > hooks that were two lines and three K smaller you'd stiil say that.
    
    Negligible in terms of number of bytes and number of lines.  But look at
    the patch contents for a moment.  Inserting a call to a hook and a return
    on error is less invasive than changing the existing kernel access
    control logic to save its result in a temporary variable, continue
    processing anyway, skip over any remaining checks if an earlier check
    failed, and then call the hook and return on error.
    
    > Oh my gosh! you mean, a loadable security module might
    > actually change the security enforcement? Oh No!
    > And here it was, I thought that was what we were out
    > to accomplish.
    
    No, we're not trying to make it easier for security modules to introduce
    a vulnerability in the base kernel access control logic.
    
    > Red Herring.
    
    Why?  It is true that the more invasive your changes, the greater risk
    of introducing a bug into the base kernel logic.  If you don't believe
    that, then you still really believe in moving all of the kernel logic
    out.
    
    > > but have essentially dropped any other
    > > requested changes.
    >
    > Bullshit. Take that back. I fart in your general direction.
    > Your mother smelt of elderberries.
    
    Sorry, I don't understand, and no need to be rude about it.
    To be precise, I'm referring to the earlier discussion about
    the need to change kernel code paths to avoid early short circuits
    and to ensure that the hooks are "truly" authoritative.  Richard
    dropped that thread and was satisfied with just the basic
    authoritative hooks patch.
    
    --
    Stephen D. Smalley, NAI Labs
    ssmalleyat_private
    
    
    
    
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