linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] kmod: make request_module() return an error when autoloading is disabled

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Message-ID: <20200311180805.GA1273@sol.localdomain>
Date:   Wed, 11 Mar 2020 11:08:05 -0700
From:   Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>
To:     Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@...nel.org>
Cc:     Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, stable@...r.kernel.org,
        Alexei Starovoitov <ast@...nel.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        Jeff Vander Stoep <jeffv@...gle.com>,
        Jessica Yu <jeyu@...nel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] kmod: make request_module() return an error when
 autoloading is disabled

On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 06:01:07PM +0000, Luis Chamberlain wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 10:41:34AM -0700, Eric Biggers wrote:
> > On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 10:28:07AM -0700, Kees Cook wrote:
> > > On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 03:37:31PM -0700, Eric Biggers wrote:
> > > > From: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...gle.com>
> > > > 
> > > > It's long been possible to disable kernel module autoloading completely
> > > > by setting /proc/sys/kernel/modprobe to the empty string.  This can be
> > > 
> > > Hunh. I've never seen that before. :) I've always used;
> > > 
> > > echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/modules_disabled
> > > 
> > > Regardless,
> > > 
> > > Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>
> > > 
> > 
> > modules_disabled is different because it disables *all* module loading, not just
> > autoloading.
> 
> Clarifying this on your patch would be useful, otherwise its lost
> tribal knowledge.

I think it would be more useful to improve the documentation in proc(5) and
Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst.  People shouldn't have to read
random kernel commit messages to find the documentation.

I'll send out patches for those.

- Eric