Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750788AbWEVMSL (ORCPT ); Mon, 22 May 2006 08:18:11 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1750787AbWEVMSL (ORCPT ); Mon, 22 May 2006 08:18:11 -0400 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:5356 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750788AbWEVMSK (ORCPT ); Mon, 22 May 2006 08:18:10 -0400 Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add user taint flag From: "Stephen C. Tweedie" To: "Theodore Ts'o" Cc: Stephen Tweedie , Andrew Morton , linux-kernel In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 13:17:46 +0100 Message-Id: <1148300267.5151.14.camel@sisko.sctweedie.blueyonder.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.0.2 (2.0.2-27) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1203 Lines: 30 Hi, On Sun, 2006-05-21 at 19:04 -0400, Theodore Ts'o wrote: > Allow taint flags to be set from userspace by writing to > /proc/sys/kernel/tainted, and add a new taint flag, TAINT_USER, to be > used when userspace is potentially doing something naughty that might > compromise the kernel. This will allow support personnel to ask further > questions about what may have caused the user taint flag to have been > set. (For example, by examining the logs of the JVM to determine what > evil things might have been lurking in the hearts of Java programs. :-) That's going to lead to a head-scratching fishing expedition from support people wondering just why this flag was set. At the very least we should force the caller to supply a log message explaining *why* the taint flag is being set and printk it at KERN_ERR loglevel or higher; so the user API would be echo $log > /proc/sys/kernel/taint rather than manipulating the bit directly. --Stephen - 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/