Re: [RFC][Patch 5/5]integrity: IMA as an integrity service provider

[Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>]

On Wed 2008-05-28 01:22:42, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Fri, 23 May 2008 11:05:45 -0400 Mimi Zohar <zohar@linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> 
> > This is a re-release of Integrity Measurement Architecture(IMA) as an
> > independent Linunx Integrity Module(LIM) service provider, which implements
> > the new LIM must_measure(), collect_measurement(), store_measurement(), and
> > display_template() API calls. The store_measurement() call supports two 
> > types of data, IMA (i.e. file data) and generic template data.
...
> Generally: the code is all moderately intrusive into the VFS and this
> sort of thing does need careful explanation and justification, please. 
> Once we have some understanding of what you're trying to achieve here
> we will inevitably ask "can't that be done in userspace".  So it would
> be best if your description were to preemptively answer all that.  

...also, it would be nice to see explanation 'what is this good for'.

Closest explanation I remember was 'it will protect you by making
system unbootable if someone stole disk with your /usr filesystem --
but not / filesystem -- added some rootkit, and then stealthily
returned it'. That seems a) very unlikely scenario and b) probably
better solved by encrypting /usr.
							Pavel
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