Re: [malware-list] scanner interface proposal was: [TALPA] Intro to a linux interface for on access scanning (fwd)

[tvrtko.ursulin@sophos.com]

david@lang.hm wrote on 18/08/2008 12:44:12:

> On Mon, 18 Aug 2008, tvrtko.ursulin@sophos.com wrote:
> 
> > David Lang wrote on 18/08/2008 02:25:44:
> >
> >> what is not covered by this design that is covered by the threat 
model
> > being
> >> proposed?
> >>
> >> what did I over complicate in this design? or is it the minimum 
feature
> > set
> >> needed?
> >>
> >> are any of the features I list impossible to implement?
> >
> > One more thing - this proposal does not work where there are no 
extended
> > attributes (whether at all or they are disabled at mount time). I 
think
> > that is a serious flaw or at least disadvantage compared to the posted
> > implementation.
> 
> good point. I should have listed that.
> 
> I don't see it as a serious flaw, people who care about this feature can 

> just pick an appropriate filesystem to use.

You mostly cannot pick not use vfat, isofs and udf.
 
> but if extended attributes are not found a strict implementation could 
> fall back to scanning on every file access (the extended attributes are 
> being used to cache the results of the scans)

Performance impact may or may not be acceptable but I dislike the concept 
of core security interface which is not really core.

--
Tvrtko A. Ursulin
Senior Software Engineer, Sophos

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