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From: Arvind Sankar <nivedita@alum.mit.edu>
To: Roberto Sassu <roberto.sassu@huawei.com>
Cc: Arvind Sankar <nivedita@alum.mit.edu>,
	Rob Landley <rob@landley.net>,
	Arvind Sankar <niveditas98@gmail.com>,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-api@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-integrity@vger.kernel.org,
	initramfs@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 0/3] initramfs: add support for xattrs in the initial ram disk
Date: Tue, 14 May 2019 21:00:00 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20190515005959.GC88615@rani.riverdale.lan> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <ca622341-5ea2-895e-8b82-7181a709c104@huawei.com>

On Tue, May 14, 2019 at 07:44:42PM +0200, Roberto Sassu wrote:
> On 5/14/2019 5:57 PM, Arvind Sankar wrote:
> > On Tue, May 14, 2019 at 11:27:04AM -0400, Arvind Sankar wrote:
> >> It's also much easier to change/customize it for the end
> >> system's requirements rather than setting the process in stone by
> >> putting it inside the kernel.
> > 
> > As an example, if you allow unverified external initramfs, it seems to
> > me that it can try to play games that wouldn't be prevented by the
> > in-kernel code: setup /dev in a weird way to try to trick /init, or more
> > easily, replace /init by /bin/sh so you get a shell prompt while only
> > the initramfs is loaded. It's easy to imagine that a system would want
> > to lock itself down to prevent abuses like this.
> 
> Yes, these issues should be addressed. But the purpose of this patch set
> is simply to set xattrs. And existing protection mechanisms can be
> improved later when the basic functionality is there.
> 
Yeah but it's much easier to enhance it when it lives in userspace and
can be tailored to a particular system's requirements. Eg a lot of the
issues will disappear if you don't have to allow for external initramfs
at all, so those systems can have a very simple embedded /init that
doesn't have to do much.
> 
> > So you might already want an embedded initramfs that can be trusted and
> > that can't be overwritten by an external one even outside the
> > security.ima stuff.
> 
> The same problems exist also the root filesystem. These should be solved
> regardless of the filesystem used, for remote attestation and for local
> enforcement.
> 
> -- 
> HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES Duesseldorf GmbH, HRB 56063
> Managing Director: Bo PENG, Jian LI, Yanli SHI


  reply	other threads:[~2019-05-15  1:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 58+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2019-05-09 11:24 [PATCH v2 0/3] initramfs: add support for xattrs in the initial ram disk Roberto Sassu
2019-05-09 11:24 ` [PATCH v2 1/3] fs: add ksys_lsetxattr() wrapper Roberto Sassu
2019-05-10 21:28   ` Jann Horn
2019-05-09 11:24 ` [PATCH v2 2/3] initramfs: set extended attributes Roberto Sassu
2019-05-09 11:24 ` [PATCH v2 3/3] initramfs: introduce do_readxattrs() Roberto Sassu
2019-05-10 21:33   ` Jann Horn
2019-05-13 13:03     ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-09 18:34 ` [PATCH v2 0/3] initramfs: add support for xattrs in the initial ram disk Rob Landley
2019-05-10  6:56   ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-10 11:49     ` Mimi Zohar
2019-05-10 20:46       ` Rob Landley
2019-05-10 22:38         ` Mimi Zohar
2019-05-11 22:44 ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-05-12  4:04   ` Rob Landley
2019-05-12  4:12     ` Rob Landley
2019-05-12  9:17 ` Dominik Brodowski
2019-05-12 10:18   ` hpa
2019-05-12 15:31     ` Dominik Brodowski
2019-05-13  0:02       ` Mimi Zohar
2019-05-13  0:21         ` hpa
2019-05-13  0:23       ` hpa
2019-05-12 12:52   ` Mimi Zohar
2019-05-12 17:05     ` Rob Landley
2019-05-12 19:43       ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-13  7:49         ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-13  9:07           ` Rob Landley
2019-05-13 12:08             ` Mimi Zohar
2019-05-13 12:47             ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-13 17:20               ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-13 17:51                 ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-13 17:52                 ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-13 18:36                   ` Mimi Zohar
2019-05-13 18:47                     ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-13 22:09                       ` Mimi Zohar
2019-05-14  6:06                         ` Rob Landley
2019-05-14 14:44                           ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-14  6:06               ` Rob Landley
2019-05-14 11:52                 ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-14 15:12                   ` Rob Landley
2019-05-14 15:27                   ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-14 15:57                     ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-14 17:44                       ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-15  1:00                         ` Arvind Sankar [this message]
2019-05-14 15:19               ` Andy Lutomirski
2019-05-14 16:33                 ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-14 16:58                   ` Greg KH
2019-05-14 17:20                     ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-15  0:25                       ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-14 19:18                 ` James Bottomley
2019-05-14 23:39                   ` Rob Landley
2019-05-14 23:54                     ` James Bottomley
2019-05-15  0:52                       ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-15 11:19                         ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-15 16:08                           ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-15 17:06                             ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-16  5:29                               ` Arvind Sankar
2019-05-16 11:42                                 ` Roberto Sassu
2019-05-16 13:31                                 ` Mimi Zohar

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