Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264641AbUD1Ek5 (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:40:57 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264643AbUD1Ek5 (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:40:57 -0400 Received: from mail.tpgi.com.au ([203.12.160.61]:7609 "EHLO mail4.tpgi.com.au") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264641AbUD1Ekz (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:40:55 -0400 Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 14:30:34 +1000 From: "Nigel Cunningham" To: Jurriaan , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: What does tainting actually mean? Reply-To: ncunningham@linuxmail.org References: <20040428042742.GA1177@middle.of.nowhere> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes; charset=us-ascii MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <20040428042742.GA1177@middle.of.nowhere> User-Agent: Opera M2/7.50 (Linux, build 663) X-TPG-Antivirus: Passed Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1349 Lines: 34 Hi. On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 06:27:42 +0200, Jurriaan wrote: > From: Nigel Cunningham > Date: Wed, Apr 28, 2004 at 02:00:35PM +1000 >> Hi all. >> >> I'm probably going to regret this, but seeing the current discussion on >> binary modules makes me wonder: >> >> What does tainting actually mean? >> > It means you can never be sure the bug is _not_ in some binary module. > It may be unprobable, you may be able to find a bug in the kernel, but > you're never _sure_. Is that true? We can see where the oops occurs. If it's in the module, nothing more needs to be said. If it's in the kernel itself, we can check our source. We could check all the calls the module makes to open source code and validate that the parameters are correct. We should be able to say with authority 'the module is doing the wrong thing'. We might not be able to say exactly what, but we could determine that it is the module. Nigel -- Nigel Cunningham C/- Westminster Presbyterian Church Belconnen 61 Templeton Street, Cook, ACT 2614, Australia. +61 (2) 6251 7727 (wk) - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/