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Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 18:49:16 +0100 (MET)
From: Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@linux01.gwdg.de>
To: Jesse Pollard <jesse@cats-chateau.net>
cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: file as a directory
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>> >> [quote]
>> >[and another one]
>>
>> Do you really want to put an XML parser and all the associated code
>> (read: McDonalds*) into the kernel?
>
>AND assume the XML file is correct...

AND use newer compilers that supposedly create bigger code.

(I do not say that they do, and I neither say that they do not, I just read
about the backwards compat on kerneltraffic.)

Clearly, this is either a userspace job (-> FUSE, hint, hint) or nothing at
all. What if this madness was applied to any file{,-type} in the FS? You could
open() something and always got a shot (i.e. open(...) = ESUCCESS).

Having something like /etc/passwd/daemon spitting out the GECOS for user
"daemon" would make systems more open for stack smash attacks. Instead of
trying to squash a lot of shellcode just to read <your favorite file>, you just
need to use <your favorite file>/<your favorite entry> and *poof*. Even worse
when it's done with O_RDWR / O_WRONLY.

Hell, I do not even want to imagine

	unlink("unlinkthisfile");
	if(stat("unlinkthisfile", &sb) == 0) {
		BUG(); <--
	}

"<--" coming true just because that's the logic of some extension module.


Jan Engelhardt
-- 
ENOSPC
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