Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753856Ab1E0Ss6 (ORCPT ); Fri, 27 May 2011 14:48:58 -0400 Received: from mail.lang.hm ([64.81.33.126]:42983 "EHLO bifrost.lang.hm" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751551Ab1E0Ss5 (ORCPT ); Fri, 27 May 2011 14:48:57 -0400 Date: Fri, 27 May 2011 11:48:14 -0700 (PDT) From: david@lang.hm X-X-Sender: dlang@asgard.lang.hm To: Ingo Molnar cc: Linus Torvalds , Dan Rosenberg , "Rafael J. Wysocki" , Tony Luck , linux-kernel , davej@redhat.com, kees.cook@canonical.com, davem@davemloft.net, eranian@google.com, adobriyan@gmail.com, penberg@kernel.org, hpa@zytor.com, Arjan van de Ven , Andrew Morton , Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu, pageexec@freemail.hu Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH] Randomize kernel base address on boot In-Reply-To: <20110527181724.GA6485@elte.hu> Message-ID: References: <1306269105.21443.20.camel@dan> <201105270018.36835.rjw@sisk.pl> <20110527170045.GB4356@elte.hu> <1306516230.3339.17.camel@dan> <20110527171611.GE4356@elte.hu> <20110527174644.GG4356@elte.hu> <20110527181724.GA6485@elte.hu> User-Agent: Alpine 2.02 (DEB 1266 2009-07-14) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1943 Lines: 45 On Fri, 27 May 2011, Ingo Molnar wrote: I don't think these two new images are as important as you are tagging them. I would put them down with the 'protect the system from root' type of issues. > - Boot time dynamic randomization allows randomization of 'mass > install' systems, where the same image is used, to still be > randomized: for example a million phones all with the same Flash > ROM image and no 'install' performed at all on them. > > With static randomization these systems will all have the same > kernel addresses. there is already a need to be able to customize these systems on an individual system basis (think SSL certs or ssh keys for example) yes, this makes it a little more difficult than just 'drop this image bit for bit on the system', but it's not that hard to setup a 'the first time you boot do this stuff then reboot' step, and that step can do the 'install time' stuff. > - Boot time dynamic randomization allows read-only systems to still > be randomized: for example internet cafes that use some popular > pre-packaged kiosk-mode live-DVD. They probably wont bother > randomizing and relinking the ISOs per machine and burning per > machine DVDs ... this matters a little bit more because a script to create a custom DVD image on the fly is more difficult. however, I think this is a significantly less important target, specifically because these are read-only system images. but if someone really cares about this, they just need to create a stack of slightly different DVDs. if this can be batched up and automated it's not that big a deal. the DVDs don't really need to be per-machine, just a variety of them. David Lang -- 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/