linux-kernel - Re: [RFC v4 PATCH 00/13] HARDENED

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Message-ID: <20161110211310.GX3117@twins.programming.kicks-ass.net>
Date:   Thu, 10 Nov 2016 22:13:10 +0100
From:   Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
To:     Will Deacon <will.deacon@....com>
Cc:     Elena Reshetova <elena.reshetova@...el.com>,
        kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com, keescook@...omium.org,
        arnd@...db.de, tglx@...utronix.de, mingo@...hat.com,
        h.peter.anvin@...el.com, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RFC v4 PATCH 00/13] HARDENED_ATOMIC

On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 08:48:38PM +0000, Will Deacon wrote:
> > That said, I still don't much like this.
> > 
> > I would much rather you make kref useful and use that. It still means
> > you get to audit all refcounts in the kernel, but hey, you had to do
> > that anyway.
> 
> What needs to happen to kref to make it useful? Like many others, I've
> been guilty of using atomic_t for refcounts in the past.

As it stands kref is a pointless wrapper. If it were to provide
something actually useful, like wrap protection, then it might actually
make sense to use it.