Re: [PATCH for-4.9] livepatch: Declare live patching as a supported feature

[Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@oracle.com>]

. snip..
> > Now all of the customers that have applied those patches are vulnerable.
> > 
> > Do you:
> > 
> > 1. Tell the reporter to post it publicly to xen-devel immediately, since
> > livepatch tools are not security supported -- thus "zero-day"-ing all
> > your customers (as well as anyone else who happens to have used x.yy to
> > build a hypervisor)?
> > 
> > 2. Secretly take advantage of Citrix' privileged position on the
> > security list, and try to get an update out to your customers before it
> > gets announced (but allowing everyone *else* using gcc x.yy to
> > experience a zero-day)?
> > 
> > 3. Issue an XSA so that everyone has the opportunity to fix things up
> > before making a public announcement, and so that anyone not on the
> > embargo list gets an alert, so they know to either update their own
> > livepatches, or look for updates from their software provider?
> > 
> > I think #3 is the only possible choice.
> > 
> >   -George
> > 
> 
> The issue here is that any bug in livepatch-build-tools which still results
> in output being generated would be a security issue, because someone might
> have used it to patch a security issue. livepatch-build-tools is certainly
> not stable enough yet (ever?) to be treated in this fashion.
> 

To add a bit. The livepatch-build-tools does not have to be used to 
create the livepatches. One can use other tools to create the livepatches
(like for example the test-cases).

And there is a nice design http://xenbits.xen.org/docs/unstable/misc/livepatch.html
(see "Design of payload format") which describes what the format of this livepatch
MUST be.

> -- 
> Ross Lagerwall

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