Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 13:22:51 +0100
From: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
To: Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>
Cc: Cliffe <cliffe@ii.net>, Casey Schaufler <casey@schaufler-ca.com>,
       Eric Paris <eparis@redhat.com>, malware-list@lists.printk.net,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-security-module@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RFC 0/5] [TALPA] Intro to a linux interface for on access
 scanning
Message-ID: <20080805132251.300924c0@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
In-Reply-To: <20080805034611.GA11399@kroah.com>
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> Remember, the big issue here isn't the kernel "hooks", but the fact that
> a lot of people are yet to be convinced that something like this needs
> to be within the kernel itself.

Mostly the same people who said that about LSM I note 8)

> Perhaps we should dig up the proposals for the filesystem-notify type
> patches, something like that might be all the majority of the virus
> people need, as they want to just scan things for Windows viruses, not
> Linux ones, and to do so "lazily" might be sufficient.

The key difference between a lazy scan and an active intervention is tiny
- the ability to block in the security decision to open a file.

Once you have that bit you have the ability to hand the file handle up to
a daemon to chew on and return a status. The same co-incidentally gives
you the hooks for doing various kinds of HSM as you can block an open
while you retrieve the archived content from wherever it was warehoused.

Alan
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