To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
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From: daw@cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner)
Newsgroups: isaac.lists.linux-kernel
Subject: Re: [patch 1/2] [RFC] Simple tamper-proof device filesystem.
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 01:19:30 +0000 (UTC)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Message-ID: <fk4ir2$g11$1@taverner.cs.berkeley.edu>
References: <47650A4C.4000708@davidnewall.com> <200712162036.JAJ09389.OQOVtOHMFLFSFJ@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp> <476512F1.5010701@davidnewall.com> <200712162103.IEC69233.FFOFOOtJMQHSLV@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp>
Reply-To: daw-usenet@taverner.cs.berkeley.edu (David Wagner)
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Tetsuo Handa writes:
>When I attended at Security Stadium 2003 as a defense side,
>I was using devfs for /dev directory. The files in /dev directory
>were deleted by attckers and the administrator was unable to login.

If the attacker gets full administrator-level access on your machine,
there are a gazillion ways the attacker can prevent other admins from
logging on.  This patch can't prevent that.  It sounds like this patch
is trying to solve a fundamentally unsolveable problem.

A useful slogan: "Don't forbid what you cannot prevent."
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