Re: [PATCH v2 0/3] initramfs: add support for xattrs in the initial ram disk

From: Rob Landley
Date: Sun May 12 2019 - 13:06:50 EST


On 5/12/19 7:52 AM, Mimi Zohar wrote:
> On Sun, 2019-05-12 at 11:17 +0200, Dominik Brodowski wrote:
>> On Thu, May 09, 2019 at 01:24:17PM +0200, Roberto Sassu wrote:
>>> This proposal consists in marshaling pathnames and xattrs in a file called
>>> .xattr-list. They are unmarshaled by the CPIO parser after all files have
>>> been extracted.
>>
>> Couldn't this parsing of the .xattr-list file and the setting of the xattrs
>> be done equivalently by the initramfs' /init? Why is kernel involvement
>> actually required here?
>
> It's too late. The /init itself should be signed and verified.

If the initramfs cpio.gz image was signed and verified by the extractor, how is
the init in it _not_ verified?

Rob