Re: [PATCH] X.509: Remove certificate date checks

[Alexander Holler <holler@ahsoftware.de>]

Am 14.03.2013 13:48, schrieb David Woodhouse:
> On Thu, 2013-03-14 at 12:34 +0000, David Howells wrote:
>> Remove the certificate date checks that are performed when a certificate is
>> parsed.  There are two checks: a valid from and a valid to.  The first check is
>> causing a lot of problems with system clocks that don't keep good time and the
>> second places an implicit expiry date upon the kernel when used for module
>> signing, so do we really need them?
>
> While the date check is entirely bogus for the specific case of module
> signing, I don't think we necessarily ought to rip it out of our generic
> X.509 support entirely.
>
> Some use cases *might* want to check the dates, and should be permitted
> to do so. Just don't refuse to even *parse* the key outside its valid
> date range... :)

Agreed (thats what my patch did).

I've introduced a new config option because I don't know if something (a 
use case I don't know) relies on the validity check of the dates in the 
parser. If there currently isn't such a user, just removing the validity 
check in the parser might be enough. Offering the parsed dates for later 
usage is still a good idea.

Regards,

Alexander