netdev - Re: [v2,PCI] move ICHx GbE NVM write-protection from e1000e to PCI quirk

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]

Message-Id: <20081117.122049.241398620.davem@davemloft.net>
Date:	Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:20:49 -0800 (PST)
From:	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
To:	bruce.w.allan@...el.com
Cc:	csnook@...hat.com, jeffrey.t.kirsher@...el.com,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [v2,PCI] move ICHx GbE NVM write-protection from e1000e to PCI
 quirk

From: "Allan, Bruce W" <bruce.w.allan@...el.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:02:32 -0800

> Well, no, not for every device with an NVRAM; just those LOM parts
> in the ICH-based family of products that has an unprotected region of
> NVRAM and a not-so-difficult set of steps necessary to corrupt the
> NVRAM by taking advantage of that.  By leaving the write-protection in
> the driver, the NVRAM can still be damaged before the driver loads (as
> seen with corruptions from ftrace in 2.6.27) or if the driver is never
> loaded.
>
> Once the NVRAM is write-protected the driver cannot revoke that
> protection, only a system reset will do that.  The kernel command
> line option to disable the write protection is so that if/when a
> user needs to change a value in the NVRAM it can still be done.

It seems to me the ftrace case could have triggered before PCI
even initializes.

Why not, therefore, write a very-early-initcall mini-driver that
does this instead?
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html