From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Stephen Hemminger Subject: [RFC] remove netpoll receive code Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:21:31 -0700 Message-ID: <20071017132131.1992bedd@freepuppy.rosehill> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org To: "David S. Miller" , Andrew Morton Return-path: Received: from smtp2.linux-foundation.org ([207.189.120.14]:37197 "EHLO smtp2.linux-foundation.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757054AbXJQUVv (ORCPT ); Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:21:51 -0400 Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org The netpoll receive code is: 1. Not used by any in-tree features, it is used by kgdb-over-ether. 2. A nice hook for people doing nasty things like private binary network stacks or rootkits. 3. Unsecured by any of the normal firewalling code. Hopefully all distro's are smart enough to turn it off in their default config *nudge, nudge*. Doubly true for any distribution that claims to be secure or enterprise ready. I propose that we take out all the whole netpoll rx path. If/when kgdb gets submitted a better and alternative receive path can be added. -- Stephen Hemminger