2008-12-03 21:41:08

by Roland

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: odd habits with binary blobs.....

hello,

i gave r1soft`s new/free "hot copy" a try today and .... failed:

vserver2:/tmp/usr/sbin # ./hcp-setup
Gathering kernel information
Gathering kernel information complete.
Error: A network error occurred connecting to 'kmod32.r1soft.com'

what a pain....trying to setup a linux kernel module, the installer wants to phone home - and fails.

but it`s even worse - http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/LTR1D/hcp-setup tells:

BUILDING HOT COPY DRIVER FROM SOURCE

hcp-setup will tar up your kernel source tree or headers and upload them to an R1Soft build server over HTTPS using XML-RPC. Once your system's kernel headers or source have been uploaded the R1Soft build server will compile a Hot Copy device driver as a kernel module and hcp-setup will automatically download it to your system.

In order for hcp-setup to work your Linux server must have HTTPS Internet access to kmod32.r1soft.com (32-bit systems) and kmod64.r1soft.com (64-bit systems)


how weird is THAT?

did anybody ever come across such "build binary blobs remotely" system ?


ok, disqualified. won`t touch it again, as i also don`t know what REALLY is transferred to the vendor - but i wonder what kernel devs think about such build system and what in-kernel alternative exists for this. (i think it doesn`t exist - but maybe somebody working on that ?)

if someone want`s to take a look or give a comment:

http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/LTR1D/hcp
http://www.r1soft.com/products/linux-hot-copy/

regards
roland

____________________________________________________________________
Psssst! Schon vom neuen WEB.DE MultiMessenger geh?rt?
Der kann`s mit allen: http://www.produkte.web.de/messenger/?did=3123


2008-12-07 08:30:30

by Pavel Machek

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: odd habits with binary blobs.....

On Wed 2008-12-03 22:40:51, [email protected] wrote:
> hello,
>
> i gave r1soft`s new/free "hot copy" a try today and .... failed:
>
> vserver2:/tmp/usr/sbin # ./hcp-setup
> Gathering kernel information
> Gathering kernel information complete.
> Error: A network error occurred connecting to 'kmod32.r1soft.com'
>
> what a pain....trying to setup a linux kernel module, the installer wants to phone home - and fails.
>
> but it`s even worse - http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/LTR1D/hcp-setup tells:
>
> BUILDING HOT COPY DRIVER FROM SOURCE
>
> hcp-setup will tar up your kernel source tree or headers and upload them to an R1Soft build server over HTTPS using XML-RPC. Once your system's kernel headers or source have been uploaded the R1Soft build server will compile a Hot Copy device driver as a kernel module and hcp-setup will automatically download it to your system.
>
> In order for hcp-setup to work your Linux server must have HTTPS Internet access to kmod32.r1soft.com (32-bit systems) and kmod64.r1soft.com (64-bit systems)
>
>
> how weird is THAT?
>
> did anybody ever come across such "build binary blobs remotely" system ?
>
>
> ok, disqualified. won`t touch it again, as i also don`t know what REALLY is transferred to the vendor - but i wonder what kernel devs think about such build system and what in-kernel alternative exists for this. (i think it doesn`t exist - but maybe somebody working on that ?)
>

Hmm. Gcc was not really designed to prevent .c source from exploiting
it.

So I guess you could have some phun :-).

Pavel
--
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html

2008-12-07 17:14:12

by Roland

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: odd habits with binary blobs.....

>>On Wed 2008-12-03 22:40:51, [email protected] wrote:
>> hello,
>>
>> i gave r1soft`s new/free "hot copy" a try today and .... failed:
>>
>> vserver2:/tmp/usr/sbin # ./hcp-setup
>> Gathering kernel information
>> Gathering kernel information complete.
>> Error: A network error occurred connecting to 'kmod32.r1soft.com'
>>
>> what a pain....trying to setup a linux kernel module, the installer wants to phone \
>> home - and fails.
>> but it`s even worse - http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/LTR1D/hcp-setup tells:
>>
>> BUILDING HOT COPY DRIVER FROM SOURCE
>>
>> hcp-setup will tar up your kernel source tree or headers and upload them to an \
>> R1Soft build server over HTTPS using XML-RPC. Once your system's kernel headers or \
>> source have been uploaded the R1Soft build server will compile a Hot Copy device \
>> driver as a kernel module and hcp-setup will automatically download it to your \
>> system.
>> In order for hcp-setup to work your Linux server must have HTTPS Internet access to \
>> kmod32.r1soft.com (32-bit systems) and kmod64.r1soft.com (64-bit systems)
>>
>> how weird is THAT?
>>
>> did anybody ever come across such "build binary blobs remotely" system ?
>>
>>
>> ok, disqualified. won`t touch it again, as i also don`t know what REALLY is \
>> transferred to the vendor - but i wonder what kernel devs think about such build \
>> system and what in-kernel alternative exists for this. (i think it doesn`t exist - \
>> but maybe somebody working on that ?)

>Hmm. Gcc was not really designed to prevent .c source from exploiting
>it.
>
>So I guess you could have some phun :-).
>
> Pavel

I already thought of that.
but isn`t it that not just a matter of gcc exploitability ?
what about uploading specially crafted makefiles, setup-scripts or kernel-source
containing backdoors.....?

besides hacking into the build servers - the problem i see is that other users download
binary code from a such potentially compromised system and/or may download kernel-
modules which could (!?) contain binary code compiled from untrusted sourcecode....
maybe BugTraq ML is a better place to discuss.....

roland
_______________________________________________________________________
Sensationsangebot verl?ngert: WEB.DE FreeDSL - Telefonanschluss + DSL
f?r nur 16,37 Euro/mtl.!* http://dsl.web.de/?ac=OM.AD.AD008K13805B7069a