linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 0/6] PPIN (Protected Processor Inventory Number) updates

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Date:   Mon, 31 Jan 2022 20:10:29 +0100
From:   Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>
To:     "Luck, Tony" <tony.luck@...el.com>
Cc:     x86@...nel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        Smita Koralahalli Channabasappa 
        <smita.koralahallichannabasappa@....com>,
        Wei Huang <wei.huang2@....com>,
        Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@....com>, patches@...ts.linux.dev
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 0/6] PPIN (Protected Processor Inventory Number)
 updates

On Mon, Jan 31, 2022 at 10:49:32AM -0800, Luck, Tony wrote:
> I think any paranoia about having a user readable "serial number"
> should be gone by now. Those wacky web folks found a dozen different ways
> to track your every move on the internet so that adverts for whatever
> you just searched for will follow you for days. It seems highly
> unlikely that browser writers will bother reading ppin and adding it
> to cookies.
> 
> But I didn't want to get distracted by that, so made the file mode 0400.

So by that logic, having it root-only would be only nuisance for FRU or
whatever software accesses it, so why not simply make it readable by
everyone then?

Lemme be clear: I'm being the devil's advocate here on purpose because
I want to make sure we don't walk into some privacy thing we haven't
thought about at the time.

So I guess 0400, root:root would be the correct thing to do - admins can
then change permissions later or so. Rather than making it readable by
everyone by default and leaving it to people to tighten it after boot.

Hmmm.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette