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* Out of tree module using LSM
@ 2007-11-28 12:42 Tvrtko A. Ursulin
  2007-11-28 14:41 ` Christoph Hellwig
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 73+ messages in thread
From: Tvrtko A. Ursulin @ 2007-11-28 12:42 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linux-kernel


Hi Linus, all,

During one recent LKML discussion 
(http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=119267398722085&w=2) about LSM going 
static  you called for LSM users to speak up.

We here at Sophos (the fourth largest endpoint security vendor in the world) 
have such a module called Talpa which is a part of our main endpoint security 
product for Linux  that protects from viruses and malware hosted on Linux, 
including those targetting Windows or other connected devices,  
(http://www.sophos.com/products/enterprise/endpoint/security-and-control/linux/index.html) 
which is GPL code and has been in the field for almost three years now. It's 
source code has been shipping with the product from the start.  We also have 
a SourceForge project at http://sourceforge.net/projects/talpa/ to host it.

In essence, what our module does is it intercepts file accesses and allows 
userspace daemons to vet them. One of the means we implemented that is 
through LSM and although it is not a perfect match for such use we prefer to 
use an official interface. Unfortunately, with time it became impossible to 
use LSM on some distributions (SELinux) so we had to implement other 
intercept methods which are significantly less nice, and which may also 
become unworkable over time.

The main point here is that making LSM not available for modules makes our 
life even more difficult and we would like to ask you to revert that change 
until another acceptable, secure solution is found.

At this point I would not like this to turn into a discussion on technical or 
code merits of our current approach. It is just that usage scenarios of 
(dis-)allowing access to files based on their content, regardless of the 
actual details, do sound like a reasonable idea. What we would like to do is 
to start discussion about possible solutions in which other interested 
parties will hopefully join and in future create some progress on this front.

-- 
Tvrtko August Ursulin
Senior Software Engineer, Sophos

Tel: 01235 559933
Web: www.sophos.com
Protecting business against viruses, spyware, spam and policy abuse

Sophos Plc, The Pentagon, Abingdon Science Park, Abingdon,
OX14 3YP, United Kingdom.

Company Reg No 2096520. VAT Reg No GB 348 3873 20.


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 73+ messages in thread
* Re: Out of tree module using LSM
@ 2007-11-30 20:52 Crispin Cowan
  2007-11-30 21:36 ` James Morris
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 73+ messages in thread
From: Crispin Cowan @ 2007-11-30 20:52 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Tvrtko A. Ursulin; +Cc: linux-kernel, LSM ML

Tvrtko A. Ursulin wrote:
> During one recent LKML discussion
> (http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=119267398722085&w=2) about
> LSM going
> static  you called for LSM users to speak up.
Great big clue: If "LSM" is in the subject line, then cc: the LSM list
linux-security-module@vger.kernel.org

For LSM readers seeing this for the first time, the thread starts here
and goes for a while http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/11/28/106

I'm sympathetic to the desire to be able to provide a 3rd party LSM that
end users can install on their systems. That is why I advocated for
keeping the dynamic LSM interface. Getting the dynamic interface
restored faces a lot of challenges, but I hope that some kind of
solution can be found, because the alternative is to effectively force
vendors like Sophos to do it the "dirty" way by fishing in memory for
the syscall table. I would much rather that Linux offers you a way to do
what you need to do than force you to do nasty things.

Crispin

-- 
Crispin Cowan, Ph.D.               http://crispincowan.com/~crispin
CEO, Mercenary Linux		   http://mercenarylinux.com/
	       Itanium. Vista. GPLv3. Complexity at work


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 73+ messages in thread
[parent not found: <9uzZr-6iz-19@gated-at.bofh.it>]

end of thread, other threads:[~2007-12-08 10:50 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 73+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2007-11-28 12:42 Out of tree module using LSM Tvrtko A. Ursulin
2007-11-28 14:41 ` Christoph Hellwig
2007-11-28 16:38   ` Casey Schaufler
2007-11-28 16:46     ` Christoph Hellwig
2007-11-28 17:39       ` Stephen Hemminger
2007-11-28 18:22         ` tvrtko.ursulin
2007-11-28 19:50           ` Alan Cox
2007-11-29 16:12             ` tvrtko.ursulin
2007-11-29  0:12           ` James Morris
2007-11-29 16:27             ` Jon Masters
2007-11-29 16:51               ` Greg KH
2007-11-29 16:51               ` Stephen Hemminger
2007-11-29 16:52               ` Jan Engelhardt
2007-11-29  0:51           ` Jan Engelhardt
2007-11-29  1:45             ` Casey Schaufler
2007-11-28 18:15       ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-11-28 18:30         ` Al Viro
2007-11-29  0:38           ` Greg KH
2007-11-29  0:53             ` Jan Engelhardt
2007-11-29  1:07               ` Greg KH
2007-11-29 16:36                 ` Jon Masters
2007-11-29 16:47                   ` Greg KH
2007-11-29 16:53                     ` Jan Engelhardt
2007-11-29 16:57                       ` Christoph Hellwig
2007-11-29 17:27                         ` Alan Cox
2007-11-29 22:58                           ` Andi Kleen
2007-12-08 10:50                             ` Pavel Machek
2007-11-29 17:03                       ` Greg KH
2007-11-29 17:35                         ` Ray Lee
2007-11-29 17:45                           ` Greg KH
2007-11-29 18:03                             ` Ray Lee
2007-11-29 18:19                               ` Justin Banks
2007-11-29 18:38                                 ` Jon Masters
2007-11-29 17:51                           ` Al Viro
2007-11-29 17:05                     ` Jon Masters
2007-11-29 17:14                       ` Greg KH
2007-11-29 16:26           ` tvrtko.ursulin
2007-11-29 17:36             ` Alan Cox
2007-11-29 18:40               ` Ray Lee
2007-11-29 18:56                 ` Jon Masters
2007-11-29 19:11                   ` Ray Lee
2007-11-29 19:45                     ` Jon Masters
2007-11-29 20:56                       ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-11-29 22:08                         ` Al Viro
2007-11-30  0:50                           ` James Morris
2007-11-29 23:31                         ` Jon Masters
2007-11-29 21:45                       ` Alan Cox
2007-11-29 22:12                         ` Justin Banks
2007-11-30  1:48                           ` Al Viro
2007-11-30 15:37                             ` Justin Banks
2007-11-29 23:34                         ` Jon Masters
2007-11-30  6:20                           ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-11-30 13:30                             ` Alan Cox
2007-11-29 21:09               ` Andi Kleen
2007-11-28 19:20 ` Andi Kleen
2007-11-28 19:52   ` Alan Cox
2007-11-28 20:05     ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-11-29 16:39   ` tvrtko.ursulin
2007-12-01  8:43     ` Pavel Machek
2007-12-02 19:44       ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-12-02 20:02         ` Arjan van de Ven
2007-12-02 20:06         ` Andi Kleen
2007-12-02 20:22         ` Pavel Machek
2007-12-02 21:09           ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2007-12-02 21:56             ` Pavel Machek
2007-12-02 23:15               ` Jan Engelhardt
2007-12-02 23:23                 ` Pavel Machek
2007-11-29  0:58 ` Greg KH
2007-11-30 20:52 Crispin Cowan
2007-11-30 21:36 ` James Morris
2007-11-30 23:52   ` Crispin Cowan
2007-12-01  0:05     ` James Morris
     [not found] <9uzZr-6iz-19@gated-at.bofh.it>
     [not found] ` <9uUrm-5w3-27@gated-at.bofh.it>
     [not found]   ` <9uVGz-7uQ-19@gated-at.bofh.it>
     [not found]     ` <9uWCC-xI-13@gated-at.bofh.it>
     [not found]       ` <9uWMp-Ix-13@gated-at.bofh.it>
     [not found]         ` <9uX5A-1rs-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
     [not found]           ` <9uXyK-24f-23@gated-at.bofh.it>
2007-12-03 22:45             ` Bodo Eggert

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