linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH 0/3] bootconfig: Use hexadecimal ASCII string for size and checksum

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:   Thu, 19 Nov 2020 12:42:34 -0500
From:   Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
To:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:     Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@...nel.org>,
        Chen Yu <yu.c.chen@...el.com>,
        Chen Yu <yu.chen.surf@...il.com>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
        "open list:DOCUMENTATION" <linux-doc@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH 0/3] bootconfig: Use hexadecimal ASCII string for
 size and checksum

On Thu, 19 Nov 2020 09:36:47 -0800
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 6:31 AM Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@...nel.org> wrote:
> >
> > Here is a seires of patches to change the bootconfig footer format
> > to use 8-bytes hexadecimal ASCII string for size and checksum instead
> > of u32.  
> 
> Ugh.,
> 
> Just make it little-endian only.
> 
> The _worst_ thing to do is to make it some kind of "native-endian",
> because then you have to deal with cross building issues etc.
> 
> But using a __le32 type and just doing "le32_to_cpu()" is trivial and
> optimal - not just because everybody relevant is LE anyway, but simply
> because even if you _aren't_ LE, an unconditional byte swap is better
> than a conditional native access.

And since this isn't used in any fast paths, the byte swapping in the
kernel should be a non-issue.

-- Steve