From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263132AbTEMBtr (ORCPT ); Mon, 12 May 2003 21:49:47 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263139AbTEMBtG (ORCPT ); Mon, 12 May 2003 21:49:06 -0400 Received: from siaag2af.compuserve.com ([149.174.40.136]:40344 "EHLO siaag2af.compuserve.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263132AbTEMBsL (ORCPT ); Mon, 12 May 2003 21:48:11 -0400 Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 21:57:28 -0400 From: Chuck Ebbert <76306.1226@compuserve.com> Subject: Re: The disappearing sys_call_table export. To: Yoav Weiss Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Message-ID: <200305122200_MC3-1-3890-B108@compuserve.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Yoav Weiss wrote: >> "That can be done manually" does not get you the check mark in >> the list of features. Management wants idiot-resistant security. > > It has nothing to do with idiot-resistance. Why should this multi-write > operation be done in kernel ? mkswap is a usermode program. mkfs is a > usermode program. If you want to have a wipeswap script that copies a > chunk of your /dev/zero to the swap, it should also be in usermode. Just > run it in wherever rc file you use to swapoff. And when I type 'swapoff' at the command line the whole scheme fails unless I am a perfect robot sysadmin and always remember to wipe the file. This needs to 'fail safe' and it needs to be done within the kernel to be considered a working feature.