From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755470AbYKIPfx (ORCPT ); Sun, 9 Nov 2008 10:35:53 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1755132AbYKIPfo (ORCPT ); Sun, 9 Nov 2008 10:35:44 -0500 Received: from casper.infradead.org ([85.118.1.10]:40197 "EHLO casper.infradead.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755114AbYKIPfn (ORCPT ); Sun, 9 Nov 2008 10:35:43 -0500 Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 07:36:30 -0800 From: Arjan van de Ven To: mathias.schnarrenberger@gmx.de Cc: "Olaf van der Spek" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: security: delete BIOS password in keyboard buffer during kernel bootup Message-ID: <20081109073630.54496eeb@infradead.org> In-Reply-To: <200811090941.20401.mathias.schnarrenberger@gmx.de> References: <200811081100.03966.mathias.schnarrenberger@gmx.de> <200811090941.20401.mathias.schnarrenberger@gmx.de> Organization: Intel X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.6.0 (GTK+ 2.14.4; i386-redhat-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-SRS-Rewrite: SMTP reverse-path rewritten from by casper.infradead.org See http://www.infradead.org/rpr.html Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sun, 9 Nov 2008 09:41:20 +0100 Mathias Schnarrenberger wrote: > > What if my BIOS stores some critical info at that memory address? > > I don't think the kernel is the right place to work around this > > issue. > > AFAIK every IBM PC compatible BIOS stores the keyboard buffer in this > area. > that's a very bold statement... there are MANY variations of BIOS that are not "IBM PC compatible". In fact, that's the rule nowadays... they are only "Windows compatible" often, anything that Windows doesn't use is.. untested at best. -- Arjan van de Ven Intel Open Source Technology Centre For development, discussion and tips for power savings, visit http://www.lesswatts.org