Re: [PATCH v2] kernel: Conditionally support non-root users, groups and capabilities

["Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>]

On Sun, Feb 01, 2015 at 12:33:23AM +0100, Richard Weinberger wrote:
> Am 01.02.2015 um 00:30 schrieb Paul E. McKenney:
> > On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 10:56:14PM +0100, Richard Weinberger wrote:
> >> On Fri, Jan 30, 2015 at 10:40 PM, Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org> wrote:
> >>> *Today*, Linux is a challenging choice for a tiny embedded system.
> >>> We're trying to fix that.
> >>
> >> Can you please more specific about the embedded systems exactly you're
> >> talking about?
> >>
> >> I find this patch rather controversial as it removes a lot of security.
> >> Embedded systems *are* a target for all kind of attacks.
> >> Misguided embedded engineers will abuse this feature and produce even more
> >> weak targets.
> > 
> > Without this patch, those same engineers would simply run everything as
> > root.  "Make a foolproof system, and they will invent a better fool".  ;-)
> 
> Luckily many services will run as non-root by default and some even refuse to
> run as root. :-)

Here is hoping that this helps those engineers to use a decent security
model for their devices!  ;-)

							Thanx, Paul