Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756781Ab0G2KRY (ORCPT ); Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:17:24 -0400 Received: from s15228384.onlinehome-server.info ([87.106.30.177]:34795 "EHLO mail.x86-64.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756613Ab0G2KRU (ORCPT ); Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:17:20 -0400 Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:16:04 +0200 From: Borislav Petkov To: Andi Kleen Cc: Vasiliy Kulikov , "kernel-janitors@vger.kernel.org" , Thomas Gleixner , Ingo Molnar , "H. Peter Anvin" , "x86@kernel.org" , Hidetoshi Seto , "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" Subject: Re: [PATCH 04/10] x86: mce: fix error handling Message-ID: <20100729101604.GA26495@aftab> References: <1280335185-23265-1-git-send-email-segooon@gmail.com> <4C5063D4.4070108@linux.intel.com> <20100728171327.GA24149@albatros> <4C5066CB.7010009@linux.intel.com> <20100729093511.GB7143@albatros> <4C514F04.80603@linux.intel.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4C514F04.80603@linux.intel.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1386 Lines: 38 From: Andi Kleen Date: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 05:51:00AM -0400 > > > IMO memmory allocation fails are dangerous in kernel mode. As it is > > probably not exploitable because of boot time, it can destroy some > > sensitive data like dirty disk caches those are going to be written on > > disk. > > It's true for runtime, but not for normal boot time. > > Anyways if it happens on boot time the only thing you can do is panic, > but someone else > will likely panic anyways for you. Just ignoring it like your patch > effectively does > (because nothing will ever look at the ENOMEMs for an initcall) Not true, initcall_debug will at least dump the -ENOMEM or the other -E's if enabled on the cmdline. So even only for that case does the patch make sense. It's a whole different question whether it actually is prudent to turn on error reporting of failed initcalls unconditionally. -- Regards/Gruss, Boris. Advanced Micro Devices GmbH Einsteinring 24, 85609 Dornach General Managers: Alberto Bozzo, Andrew Bowd Registration: Dornach, Gemeinde Aschheim, Landkreis Muenchen Registergericht Muenchen, HRB Nr. 43632 -- 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/