Re: [PATCH] fs/proc: Add process text segment md5-summing

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:36:17 +0000
Arvid Brodin <Arvid.Brodin@xdin.com> wrote:

> Adds /proc/<pid>/text_md5sum which, when read, calculates an md5sum over
> the process' text segment. This can detect some cases where the system RAM
> has been disturbed by e.g. ESD or cosmic radiation (on systems where ECC
> is not available). It might also detect some accidental or malicious
> modifications of executables, where the perpetrator has not bothered to
> cover up the tracks.

I thought the review comments regarding the earlier patch were rather
fatal, sorry.

> +	  Read /proc/<pid>/text_md5sum to get the kernel to perform an MD5
> +	  checksum over the process' text segment and print the result. This
> +	  can detect some cases where the system RAM has been disturbed by
> +	  e.g. ESD or cosmic radiation (on systems where ECC is not available).
> +	  It might also detect some accidental or malicious modifications of
> +	  executables, where the perpetrator has not bothered to cover up the
> +	  tracks.

And that doesn't seem to help much, really.  .text is only a small part
of a process's VM and corruption of data, bss, heap or stack is just as
bad.