linux-kernel - Re: network driver usage count

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 for Android: free password hash cracker in your pocket

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

Message-ID: <87pry1ff3c.fsf@tac.ki.iif.hu>
Date:	Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:09:27 +0100
From:	Ferenc Wagner <wferi@...f.hu>
To:	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
Cc:	shemminger@...ux-foundation.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: network driver usage count

David Miller <davem@...emloft.net> writes:

> From: Wagner Ferenc <wferi@...f.hu>
> Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:16:59 +0100
>
>> Hmm, that would warrant nuking all the reference counts on every
>> driver.
>
> That's not true.  When packets are in flight, references go
> to the device and the device cannot be unloaded until those
> references get dropped.

I'm trying to understand it.  Do you mean that the "usage count" in
the lsmod output does not express the user's view of a piece of *ware
being in use, but rather the number of internal kernel references to
it, which would become invalid should that piece disappear?  Where the
former "invalidily" means some undetectable and uncorrectable
inconsistency in the kernel data structures, which leads to a kernel
crash.

> This behavior makes sense because otherwise you have to figure
> out the myriad of references (each ipv4 address, each ipv6
> address, routes, ARP entries, etc.) just to perform such a
> simple operation.

Yes, that's the user's idea of a network device being in use.  It can
get hairy indeed.

> If you do not mean to unload the device, simply do not do it.

Now I know...
-- 
Thanks for taking the time,
Feri.
-
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/