linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] Fix kexec forbidding kernels signed with custom platform keys to boot

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Date:   Thu, 16 Aug 2018 16:49:57 +0100
From:   David Howells <dhowells@...hat.com>
To:     James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@...senPartnership.com>
Cc:     dhowells@...hat.com,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@...hat.com>, yannik@...britzki.me,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, Peter Anvin <hpa@...or.com>,
        the arch/x86 maintainers <x86@...nel.org>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Dave Young <dyoung@...hat.com>, Baoquan He <bhe@...hat.com>,
        Justin Forbes <jforbes@...hat.com>,
        Peter Jones <pjones@...hat.com>,
        Matthew Garrett <mjg59@...gle.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Fix kexec forbidding kernels signed with custom platform keys to boot

James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@...senPartnership.com> wrote:

> > The problem with that is that it means you can't load third party
> > modules - such as the NVidia driver.  That's fine if you absolutely
> > reject the right of people to produce third party drivers for the
> > Linux kernel and absolutely require that they open and upstream their
> > code if they want in.
> 
> So if you build your own kernel and want to load the nVidia module, you
> have the key to sign it.

I think you have to assume that doing this is beyond most people.  Further, as
a distribution we would prefer people didn't raise bugs against kernels that
we didn't build.

> If you're a distribution and want third party modules to be loaded you can
> set up a third party signing process using a distro key ... I don't see what
> the big problem is.

That's the problem is right there.  AIUI, we *don't* want to set up a third
party signing process.  As I said, it potentially comes with lawyers attached.

> So your lawyers tell you if you sign a third party module for your
> kernel then you could get blamed for the damage it causes?

There's more to it than that, but I feel I should discuss it with our legal
dept. before airing it here.

David