Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:29:22 +0300
From: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@tv-sign.ru>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: ebiederm@xmission.com, xemul@openvz.org, pavel@ucw.cz, sds@tycho.nsa.gov,
       roland@redhat.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] ptrace: it is fun to strace /sbin/init
Message-ID: <20080324232922.GA207@tv-sign.ru>
References: <20080323135110.GA294@tv-sign.ru> <20080324152906.dee7b272.akpm@linux-foundation.org> <20080324225611.GA157@tv-sign.ru> <20080324160819.cea2d921.akpm@linux-foundation.org>
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On 03/24, Andrew Morton wrote:
>
> On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:56:11 +0300
> Oleg Nesterov <oleg@tv-sign.ru> wrote:
> 
> > On 03/24, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > >
> > > On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:51:10 +0300
> > > Oleg Nesterov <oleg@tv-sign.ru> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Ptracing of /sbin/init is not allowed. Of course, this is dangerous, but may
> > > > be useful. Introduce the kernel boot parameter to allow this, so that we can't
> > > > surprise some special/secured systems.
> > > 
> > > I dunno, is this really needed?
> > 
> > Well, this is the question. I think it would be very nice to have the ability
> > to debug/strace init. Especially if you try to make your own distribution /
> > your own init.
> > 
> > Sometimes I see init at the top of the top's output, with this patch I have a
> > chance to see what's going on on my system.
> 
> I agree that init should be ptraceable.  I'm questioning the value of a
> knob which enables that ability.
> 
> Why not just unconditionally enable root's abiltiy to ptrace init?

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood.

As for me, I think it would be right to allow to ptrace init unconditionally.
But I'd like to know what security people think, I am very much afraid there
is something I don't know/understand (like it happened with "don't panic if
/sbin/init exits or killed").

Oleg.

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