linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 2/4] fs: define a firmware security filesystem named fwsecurityfs

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Message-ID: <Y2uvUFQ9S2oaefSY@kroah.com>
Date:   Wed, 9 Nov 2022 14:46:56 +0100
From:   Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
To:     Nayna Jain <nayna@...ux.ibm.com>
Cc:     linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-efi@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-security-module <linux-security-module@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>, npiggin@...il.com,
        christophe.leroy@...roup.eu, Dov Murik <dovmurik@...ux.ibm.com>,
        George Wilson <gcwilson@...ux.ibm.com>,
        Matthew Garrett <mjg59@...f.ucam.org>,
        Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...el.com>,
        Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@...nel.crashing.org>,
        Paul Mackerras <paulus@...ba.org>,
        Russell Currey <ruscur@...sell.cc>,
        Andrew Donnellan <ajd@...ux.ibm.com>,
        Stefan Berger <stefanb@...ux.ibm.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/4] fs: define a firmware security filesystem named
 fwsecurityfs

On Sun, Nov 06, 2022 at 04:07:42PM -0500, Nayna Jain wrote:
> securityfs is meant for Linux security subsystems to expose policies/logs
> or any other information. However, there are various firmware security
> features which expose their variables for user management via the kernel.
> There is currently no single place to expose these variables. Different
> platforms use sysfs/platform specific filesystem(efivarfs)/securityfs
> interface as they find it appropriate. Thus, there is a gap in kernel
> interfaces to expose variables for security features.
> 
> Define a firmware security filesystem (fwsecurityfs) to be used by
> security features enabled by the firmware. These variables are platform
> specific. This filesystem provides platforms a way to implement their
>  own underlying semantics by defining own inode and file operations.
> 
> Similar to securityfs, the firmware security filesystem is recommended
> to be exposed on a well known mount point /sys/firmware/security.
> Platforms can define their own directory or file structure under this path.
> 
> Example:
> 
> # mount -t fwsecurityfs fwsecurityfs /sys/firmware/security

Why not juset use securityfs in /sys/security/firmware/ instead?  Then
you don't have to create a new filesystem and convince userspace to
mount it in a specific location?

thanks,

greg k-h