linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] Reserve N process to root

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Message-ID: <470D68DA.2010803@davidnewall.com>
Date:	Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:35:46 +0930
From:	David Newall <david@...idnewall.com>
To:	Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu
CC:	Gustavo Chain <g@...f.cl>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Reserve N process to root

Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu wrote:
> What David meant was that "root will always have a slot" doesn't *actually*
> help unless you *also* have a way to actually *spawn* such a process.  In order
> to do the ps, kill, and so on that you need to recover, you need to already
> have either a root shell available, or a way to *get* a root shell that doesn't
> rely on a non-root process (so /bin/su doesn't help here).

That's right, although it's worse than that.  You need to have a process 
with CAP_SYS_ADMIN.  If root processes normally have that capability 
then the reserved slots may well disappear before you notice a problem.  
If root processes normally don't have it, then you need to guarantee 
that one is already running.
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