Re: LSM conversion to static interface

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From: James Morris
Date: Friday, October 19, 2007 - 2:07 pm

On Fri, 19 Oct 2007, Andreas Gruenbacher wrote:


Can you provide an example of a real LSM which can be safely unloaded and 
also needs to be unloaded?

Why should we maintain infrastructure and extra complexity in the kernel 
for theoretical or unknown modules ?

Linus has asked for any valid out of tree users who need a dynamic 
interface to step forward.  Where are they?

As one of the people who actually maintains LSM (rather than simply 
speculates about it), I object to maintaining infrastructure which, to the 
best of my knowledge, is only used by out of tree, binary, broken junk.

If you recall, the original motivation for this patch was when the idea 
of adding a new capability to control security model unload was raised.  

That is, new security infrastructure was being proposed merely to cater to 
some other existing unnecessary security infrastructure.  So, rather than 
doing that, I proposed removing the unnecessary infrastructure.

I agree with Linus: if you can demonstrate a valid, concrete use for 
dynamic LSMs, then the infrastructure to support them can easily be 
reinstated.

But until then, it seems both reasonable and in keeping with good kernel 
development practices, to not maintain unused infrastructure.


- James
-- 
James Morris
<jmorris@namei.org>
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Messages in current thread:
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Linus Torvalds, (Wed Oct 17, 7:18 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Andreas Gruenbacher, (Fri Oct 19, 1:26 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Linus Torvalds, (Fri Oct 19, 1:40 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, James Morris, (Fri Oct 19, 2:07 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Jan Engelhardt, (Sat Oct 20, 4:05 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, James Morris, (Sat Oct 20, 3:57 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Adrian Bunk, (Sun Oct 21, 3:59 pm)
Re: Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Crispin Cowan, (Sun Oct 21, 6:12 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], Arjan van de Ven, (Mon Oct 22, 9:09 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], James Morris, (Mon Oct 22, 9:56 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], Arjan van de Ven, (Mon Oct 22, 9:57 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], Chris Wright, (Mon Oct 22, 10:16 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Giacomo Catenazzi, (Mon Oct 22, 10:44 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Jan Engelhardt, (Tue Oct 23, 1:55 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], Jan Engelhardt, (Tue Oct 23, 2:10 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], Chris Wright, (Tue Oct 23, 2:13 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Jan Engelhardt, (Tue Oct 23, 2:13 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], Jan Engelhardt, (Tue Oct 23, 2:14 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Giacomo A. Catenazzi, (Tue Oct 23, 2:14 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Jan Engelhardt, (Tue Oct 23, 2:18 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Serge E. Hallyn, (Tue Oct 23, 8:20 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Jan Engelhardt, (Tue Oct 23, 8:28 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Serge E. Hallyn, (Tue Oct 23, 8:34 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], Jeremy Fitzhardinge, (Tue Oct 23, 5:31 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], Chris Wright, (Tue Oct 23, 5:32 pm)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface [revert patch], Arjan van de Ven, (Tue Oct 23, 10:06 pm)
Re: Linux Security *Module* Framework (Was: LSM conversion ..., Bernd Petrovitsch, (Thu Oct 25, 2:19 am)
Re: LSM conversion to static interface, Valdis.Kletnieks, (Thu Oct 25, 3:23 am)
Re: Linux Security *Module* Framework (Was: LSM conversion ..., Arjan van de Ven, (Thu Oct 25, 10:10 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Stefan Richter, (Sat Oct 27, 10:31 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Stefan Richter, (Sun Oct 28, 2:25 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Tilman Schmidt, (Sun Oct 28, 5:01 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Stefan Richter, (Sun Oct 28, 7:37 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Simon Arlott, (Sun Oct 28, 7:59 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Tilman Schmidt, (Sun Oct 28, 9:55 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Tilman Schmidt, (Sun Oct 28, 11:51 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Adrian Bunk, (Sun Oct 28, 12:25 pm)
Re: Linux Security *Module* Framework, Tilman Schmidt, (Sun Oct 28, 12:42 pm)
Re: Linux Security *Module* Framework, Jan Engelhardt, (Sun Oct 28, 1:46 pm)
Re: Linux Security *Module* Framework (Was: LSM conversion ..., Arjan van de Ven, (Sun Oct 28, 10:12 pm)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Tilman Schmidt, (Mon Oct 29, 5:29 pm)
Re: Linux Security *Module* Framework (Was: LSM conversion ..., Bernd Petrovitsch, (Tue Oct 30, 2:41 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, linux-os (Dick Johnson), (Tue Oct 30, 6:11 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Xavier Bestel, (Tue Oct 30, 6:19 am)
Re: eradicating out of tree modules, Greg KH, (Tue Oct 30, 8:30 am)