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Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 14:26:25 -0800
From: "Randy.Dunlap" <rddunlap@osdl.org>
To: Abramo Bagnara <abramo.bagnara@libero.it>
Cc: ak@suse.de, mbligh@aracnet.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [Bug 420] New: Divide by zero  (/proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/DEV/base_reachable_time)
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On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 23:23:33 +0100
Abramo Bagnara <abramo.bagnara@libero.it> wrote:

| Andi Kleen wrote:
| > 
| > "Martin J. Bligh" <mbligh@aracnet.com> writes:
| > >
| > >     echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/DEV/base_reachable_time
| > >
| > >   But neigh_rand_reach_time() divide by its argument.
| > >
| > >     unsigned long neigh_rand_reach_time(unsigned long base)
| > >     {
| > >       return (net_random() % base) + (base>>1);
| > >     }
| > 
| > Don't do that then. The sysctl is root-only. There are lots of ways to
| > break the system by writing bogus values into root only configuration
| > options. That is why they are root only
| > 
| > I would close the report as WONTFIX.
| 
| Don't this argument bring to the weird equality:
| 
| root user == infallible guy
| 
| IMHO the "if you make a typo you crash the machine" should be avoided
| (at least when feasible without drawbacks).

I agree with that.
It's worth making a patch and letting the maintainer reject it.

Of course, there are still plenty of other ways to write to /proc and kill
the system.

--
~Randy
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