Re: Hardwired drivers are going away?

Anton Altaparmakov
2002-01-21T01:29:14Z

At 01:07 21/01/02, Mr. James W. Laferriere wrote:
>On Mon, 21 Jan 2002, Anton Altaparmakov wrote:
> > At 23:20 20/01/02, Frank van de Pol wrote:
> > >On Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 10:22:43AM +1100, Keith Owens wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 18 Jan 2002 17:20:02 -0500 (EST),
> > > > "Mr. James W. Laferriere" <babydr@baby-dragons.com> wrote:
> > > > > Linux doesn't have a method to load encrypted & signed modules at
> > > > > this time .
> > > > And never will. Who loads the module - root. Who maintains the list
> > > > of signatures - root. Who controls the code that verifies the
> > > > signature - root.
> > > > Your task Jim, should you choose to accept it, is to make the kernel
> > > > distinguish between a good use of root and a malicious use by some who
> > > > has broken in and got root privileges. When you can do that, then we
> > > > can add signed modules.
> > >If you want to secure your box, why don't you simply put a lock on it and
> > >throw away the key? Really, what might help the paranoid admins in
> this case
> > >is a setting in the kernel which basically disables the ability to load or
> > >unload modules. Of course once set this setting can not been turned with
> > >rebooting the box.
>
> > Er that sounds like just disabling modules in the kernel altogether (kernel
> > compile option exists for this since the beginning of time)... I do that on
> > all servers I control. Not only for security reasons but also because I
> > suspect it produces smaller and probably faster kernels (I haven't tested
> > this in any way, just a guess).
> This is just what the Heads are trying to do away with . There
> will only be module enabled kernels . JimL

Ah! Serves me right for jumping into a thread without reading the previous
posts... I better shut up as I have no idea why this is being done. From my
unknowledgeable point of view it seems daft but there probably are good
reasons... I suppose even non-modular kernels can be modified by the root
user to be exploited, it's just a little bit harder...

Best regards,

Anton

--
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--
Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cam.ac.uk> (replace at with @)
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