linux-kernel - Re: 2.6.19-git13: uts banner changes break SLES9 (at least)

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:05:41 -0800 (PST)
From:	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
To:	paulus@...ba.org
Cc:	torvalds@...l.org, olaf@...fle.de, herbert@...hfloor.at,
	apw@...dowen.org, ak@...e.de, akpm@...l.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, drfickle@...ibm.com,
	linuxppc-dev@...abs.org
Subject: Re: 2.6.19-git13: uts banner changes break SLES9 (at least)

From: Paul Mackerras <paulus@...ba.org>
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 09:04:41 +1100

> If there is a reliable way to get the version string, great, I'll use
> that.

FWIW, on sparc and sparc64 we have this information block for
the boot loader.

The first two instructions at the entry point simply branch
over the boot loader information block header.

The information block starts with a known magic string "HdrS" which
does not match any valid Sparc instruction.  Any tool can search for
it starting at the symbol "_start" in the kernel image.

Inside this information block we stick a 32-bit word which contains
LINUX_VERSION_CODE.

That only gives you the version, not the whole version string, but you
could put the whole string in such a location when adding such a
facility to powerpc if you wanted to.

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/