Re: [PATCH 2/2] debugfs: only allow root access to debugging interfaces

Henrique de Moraes Holschuh
2011-02-24T17:34:31Z

On Thu, 24 Feb 2011, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 05:58:47PM -0300, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> > I do wish this went in. debugfs is a hazard, both security-wise and
> > kernel-quality wise. Anything that has to end up enabled in a distro
> > kernel really does not belong in debugfs. In fact, if you would object
> > to a kernel taint if a feature is used, IMO it certainly don't belong on
> > debugfs.
>
> It was also because we had no idea how ftrace was going to be used and
> what the final ABI was going to be. I was hoping that we can experiment
> with the interface and after some time we could move it out of debugfs
> with a stable ABI. But this, for various reasons, never materialized.
>
> Currently things are still in a large flux, and I do not know how this
> will play out. Although the changes in /debugfs/tracing has toned down a
> lot, there's also the work going in on how to merge perf and ftrace.
> This may start changes as well, and perhaps deprecate interfaces. I
> don't know.

How will that play with Linus' ruling that "you shipped it, someone used it,
it becomes an stable ABI" ?

Some middle ground is clearly needed, here.

--
"One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
Henrique Holschuh