Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1760822AbYCDRpU (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Mar 2008 12:45:20 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753549AbYCDRpH (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Mar 2008 12:45:07 -0500 Received: from web36606.mail.mud.yahoo.com ([209.191.85.23]:36832 "HELO web36606.mail.mud.yahoo.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S1751123AbYCDRpG (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Mar 2008 12:45:06 -0500 X-YMail-OSG: NOWqJxsVM1msUqW10wQtWhTZruDc.BFZ_mlENTVlAXZzKVOe2IYhBzvlvsCfK87oLcdY1ixXrw-- X-Mailer: YahooMailRC/902.35 YahooMailWebService/0.7.162 Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:45:04 -0800 (PST) From: Casey Schaufler Subject: Re: [PATCH BUGFIX -rc3] Smack: Don't register smackfs if we're not loaded To: Linus Torvalds , "Ahmed S. Darwish" Cc: LKML MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Message-ID: <521493.30745.qm@web36606.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1744 Lines: 52 ----- Original Message ---- > From: Linus Torvalds > To: Ahmed S. Darwish > Cc: Casey Schaufler ; LKML > Sent: Tuesday, March 4, 2008 9:21:19 AM > Subject: Re: [PATCH BUGFIX -rc3] Smack: Don't register smackfs if we're not loaded > > > > On Tue, 4 Mar 2008, Ahmed S. Darwish wrote: > > > > Smackfs initialization without an enabled Smack leads to > > an early Oops that renders the system unusable. > > I really think this is bogus. Global enables like this are just wrong, and > a sign that something else bad is going on. > > What is the oops? Why does it happen? A kernel that is built with both SELinux and Smack contains all of the components for both, including smackfs. If SELinux is chosen as the module to be used and smackfs is initialized the oops occurs because the Smack initialization that smackfs depends on has not been done. One solution would be to tighten the smackfs code so that it handles the uninitialized LSM case properly. Another would be to set up Kconfig as to make SELinux and Smack mutually exclusive, although I really don't know how well that would go over in testing circles because "config all on" becomes ambiguous. A third would be to provide for stacking, but I assume that's beyond the scope of this exercise. So I think that fixing up smackfs is the right choice at this point. > > > Linus Casey Schaufler casey@schaufler-ca.com -- 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/