Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 0/5] ATAPI pass through v2

[Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>]

Stuart Brady wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 01, 2009 at 07:31:53PM +0100, Bique Alexandre wrote:
>   
>> I updated my patch according to your previous comments.
>>
>> Changes from my previous version:
>>  - split the big patch in 5 patches.
>>  - not exporting any private structure
>>  - switched to SG_IO and brdv_aio_ioctl()
>>  - not including linux/cdrom.h or linux/bsg.h
>>  - got some stuff like defines and request_sense structure from linux/cdrom.h
>>     
>
> Forgive my ignorance, but does ATAPI passthrough have any security 
> implications that should be documented?
>
> I expect that running qemu as root counts as a 'bad idea' (I gather
> that commands are filtered when running as a regular user), but even so,
> I wonder if guests should be prevented from performing firmware updates?
>   

One should never rely on QEMU to enforce any security policy.  That's 
the job of the OS.

I'm sure something like SELinux can be used to prevent a root QEMU 
process from doing a firmware upgrade.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori