linux-kernel - Re: [git patches] two warning fixes

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:	Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:37:53 -0700 (PDT)
From:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Jeff Garzik <jeff@...zik.org>
cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, ak@...e.de,
	adaplas@...il.com, linux-fbdev-devel@...ts.sourceforge.net,
	benh@...nel.crashing.org
Subject: Re: [git patches] two warning fixes

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> 
> Please pull from 'warnings' branch of
> master.kernel.org:/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jgarzik/misc-2.6.git warnings
> 
> to receive the following updates:

Quite frankly, I think a *lot* better fix for warnings would be to remove 
those damn broken "must_check" things on functions that don't at all need 
checking!

I'm pretty fed up with random "must_check" and "deprecated". They have 
never *ever* helped anybody, afaik. There are some very few functions that 
really do need to have their error returns checked (because not checking 
it is a security issue), but people seem to think "must_check" is a good 
approximation of "I think most of the time it makes sense to check".

So let's make a new rule:

  We absolutely NEVER add things like "must_check" unless not checking 
  causes a real and obvious SECURITY ISSUE.

  And we absolutely *never* add crap like "deprecated", where the only 
  point of the warning is to effectively hide *real* problems.

So realistically, the only thing that needs must_check is pretty much 
things like "get_user()" and quite frankly, I'm not sure even about that 
one.

Ok?

			Linus
-
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/