Re: [PATCH] Remove broken netfilter binary sysctls from bridging code

Stephen Hemminger
2007-09-25T16:12:30Z

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:07:24 +0200
Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net> wrote:

> Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> > On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:55:38 +0200
> > Patrick McHardy <kaber@trash.net> wrote:
> >
> >>Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> >>
> >>>A really good fix would be to remove the binary side and then to
> >>>modify brnf_sysctl_call_tables to allocate a temporary ctl_table
> >>>and integer on the stack and only set ctl->data after we have
> >>>normalized the written value. But since in practice nothing cares
> >>>about the race a better fix probably isn't worth it.
> >>
> >>
> >>I seem to be missing something, the entire brnf_sysctl_call_tables
> >>thing looks purely cosmetic to me, wouldn't it be better to simply
> >>remove it?
> >
> >
> > I agree, removing seems like a better option. But probably need to
> > go through a 3-6mo warning period, since sysctl's are technically
> > an API.
>
>
> I meant removing brnf_sysctl_call_tables function, not the sysctls
> themselves, all it does is change values != 0 to 1. Or did you
> actually mean that something in userspace might depend on reading
> back the value 1 after writing a value != 0?

I was going farther, because don't really see the value of having
a sysctl for this. It seems better to just not load filters if
they aren't going to be used. Having another enable/disable hook
just adds needless complexity.