On Fri, 17 Jan 2003 11:33:46 +0530, Linux Geek <bourne@ToughGuy.net> said:
> If a kernel oops, then is the problem always with the kernel ? Can't a
> user proggie ( running as root ) do something insane and make the
> kernel oops ?
At least in theory, there should be *nothing* that can happen in user space
that will kill the kernel. However, in practice, if a program is running
as root, it can definitely blortch things up. This is mostly due to the
assumption that the root user has a clue, and that if they are (for instance)
opening /proc/kcore for writing, that they know what they're doing. Similarly,
if a program opens /dev/hda1 for writing and scribbles over the superblock,
it may be a bit difficult to mount the filesystem.
So in general, yes, the root user can screw things up in the kernel. On the
other hand, the root user can also 'rm -rf /' which doesn't require any
extraordinary kernel assistance, just the unlink() system call. The only
solution here is to not give root to clueless bozos, and to take regular
backups. ;)
-- Valdis Kletnieks Computer Systems Senior Engineer Virginia Tech
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jan 23 2003 - 22:00:15 EST