Re: [PATCH] Add user taint flag

[Stephen C. Tweedie]

Hi,

On Sun, 2006-05-21 at 19:04 -0400, Theodore Ts'o wrote:
> Allow taint flags to be set from userspace by writing to
> /proc/sys/kernel/tainted, and add a new taint flag, TAINT_USER, to be
> used when userspace is potentially doing something naughty that might
> compromise the kernel.  This will allow support personnel to ask further
> questions about what may have caused the user taint flag to have been
> set.  (For example, by examining the logs of the JVM to determine what
> evil things might have been lurking in the hearts of Java programs.  :-)

That's going to lead to a head-scratching fishing expedition from
support people wondering just why this flag was set.

At the very least we should force the caller to supply a log message
explaining *why* the taint flag is being set and printk it at KERN_ERR
loglevel or higher; so the user API would be

	echo $log > /proc/sys/kernel/taint

rather than manipulating the bit directly.

--Stephen


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