From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Steve Grubb <sgrubb@redhat.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Audit: fix audit nlmsg_len from the kernel
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 16:45:02 -0400
Message-ID: <200906021645.02794.sgrubb@redhat.com>
References: <20090528231753.14980.15527.stgit@paris.rdu.redhat.com>
	<1243975082.2923.6.camel@dhcp231-142.rdu.redhat.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: Text/Plain;
  charset="iso-8859-15"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Return-path: <linux-audit-bounces@redhat.com>
In-Reply-To: <1243975082.2923.6.camel@dhcp231-142.rdu.redhat.com>
Content-Disposition: inline
List-Unsubscribe: <https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-audit>,
	<mailto:linux-audit-request@redhat.com?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://www.redhat.com/archives/linux-audit>
List-Post: <mailto:linux-audit@redhat.com>
List-Help: <mailto:linux-audit-request@redhat.com?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-audit>,
	<mailto:linux-audit-request@redhat.com?subject=subscribe>
Sender: linux-audit-bounces@redhat.com
Errors-To: linux-audit-bounces@redhat.com
To: linux-audit@redhat.com
Cc: viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk
List-Id: linux-audit@redhat.com

On Tuesday 02 June 2009 04:38:02 pm Eric Paris wrote:
> > But lets fix it anyway rather than rely on dumb luck and implementation
> > details.
>
> Self NAK.   Userspace was also written by someone who didn't know
> netlink.  Since userspace is half using the netlink macros and half
> depending on this broken nlmsg_len implementation I don't think we can
> make any changes in the kernel and they wouldn't be backwards
> compatible...

The netlink code is the oldest part of the audit code and predates my 
involvement. We could fix this if userspace had a way of querying the kernel to 
see what the audit capabilities are. There have been many times that I've 
wanted a way to ask the kernel if certain things are supported.

-Steve