Re: [PATCH nfs-utils] exportfs: make "insecure" the default for all exports

[Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com>]

On 5/21/25 9:14 AM, Chuck Lever wrote:
> On 5/21/25 5:06 AM, Sebastian Feld wrote:
>> On Tue, May 13, 2025 at 3:50 PM Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Back in the 80's someone thought it was a good idea to carve out a set
>>> of ports that only privileged users could use. When NFS was originally
>>> conceived, Sun made its server require that clients use low ports.
>>> Since Linux was following suit with Sun in those days, exportfs has
>>> always defaulted to requiring connections from low ports.
>>>
>>> These days, anyone can be root on their laptop, so limiting connections
>>> to low source ports is of little value.
>>>
>>> Make the default be "insecure" when creating exports.
>>
>> I made a poll webpage for our sysadmins about what they think about this change.
> 
> Who are "our sysadmins" and what did you do to compensate for various
> cognitive biases?
> 
> 
>> Out of 26 people allowed to vote 24 voted "BAD idea, keep the secure
>> option the default", and two didn't vote.
>>
>> So this is a change which is virtually 100% hated by the people
>> primarily affected by such a change.
> 
> I'm interested in understanding why changing the default behavior is a
> problem. Is explicitly adding the "secure" export option on the exports
> where it matters a heavy lift? If so, why?

To be clear: asking around is a sensible thing to do. However I'd like
to see more nuanced feedback than "BAD idea".


-- 
Chuck Lever