Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756667Ab0KSUFo (ORCPT ); Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:05:44 -0500 Received: from smtp1.linux-foundation.org ([140.211.169.13]:47124 "EHLO smtp1.linux-foundation.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753281Ab0KSUFn (ORCPT ); Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:05:43 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: <20101116104600.GA24015@suse.de> <20101119191906.GA31760@xanatos> From: Linus Torvalds Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:04:47 -0800 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [PATCH] kernel: make /proc/kallsyms mode 400 to reduce ease of attacking To: david@lang.hm Cc: Sarah Sharp , Marcus Meissner , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, tj@kernel.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org, hpa@zytor.com, mingo@elte.hu, w@1wt.eu, alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 756 Lines: 20 On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 11:58 AM, wrote: > > how far back do we need to maintain compatibility with userspace? > > Is this something that we can revisit in a few years and lock it down then? The rule is basically "we never break user space". But the "out" to that rule is that "if nobody notices, it's not broken". In a few years? Who knows? So breaking user space is a bit like trees falling in the forest. If there's nobody around to see it, did it really break? Linus -- 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/