Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264663AbUD1F33 (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 01:29:29 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264664AbUD1F33 (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 01:29:29 -0400 Received: from mail.tpgi.com.au ([203.12.160.53]:45762 "EHLO mail5.tpgi.com.au") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264663AbUD1F3C (ORCPT ); Wed, 28 Apr 2004 01:29:02 -0400 Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 15:18:35 +1000 From: "Nigel Cunningham" To: "Chris Friesen" Subject: Re: What does tainting actually mean? Cc: Jurriaan , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Reply-To: ncunningham@linuxmail.org References: <20040428042742.GA1177@middle.of.nowhere> <408F3EE4.1080603@nortelnetworks.com> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes; charset=us-ascii MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <408F3EE4.1080603@nortelnetworks.com> 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: 1782 Lines: 41 Hi. On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 01:19:32 -0400, Chris Friesen wrote: > If only it were that easy. > > There has already been a case mentioned of a binary module that messed > up something that was only visible once that module was unloaded and > another one loaded. It all depends totally on usage patterns. I don't know what module you're talking about, but surely there must be something that could be done kernel-side to protect against such problems. Reference counting or such like? I guess if it was a hardware issue, but then again that might be an issue with too many assumptions being made about prior state? Maybe I am being too naive :> > Binary modules, on the other hand, are often loaded up by users that > know just barely enough to download them and run an install script. In > this case, it can be helpful to know up front that there has been > proprietary code running in kernel space, and aside from calls to kernel > APIs, we have no clue what else it was doing, what memory was being > trampled, what cpu registers were whacked, etc. Now I see your point. Of course my previous point about patches is still valid though: the tainted flag only gives part of the picture. The person reporting the bug might create just as much of a black box for us by forgetting to mention that they applied patch foobar. Regards, 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/