netdev - Re: fanotify as syscalls

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Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.00.0909230827100.21515@makko.or.mcafeemobile.com>
Date:	Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:35:18 -0700 (PDT)
From:	Davide Libenzi <davidel@...ilserver.org>
To:	"hch@...radead.org" <hch@...radead.org>
cc:	Tvrtko Ursulin <tvrtko.ursulin@...hos.com>,
	Andreas Gruenbacher <agruen@...e.de>,
	Jamie Lokier <jamie@...reable.org>,
	Eric Paris <eparis@...hat.com>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Evgeniy Polyakov <zbr@...emap.net>,
	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
	"viro@...iv.linux.org.uk" <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
	"alan@...ux.intel.com" <alan@...ux.intel.com>
Subject: Re: fanotify as syscalls

On Wed, 23 Sep 2009, hch@...radead.org wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 09:39:33AM +0100, Tvrtko Ursulin wrote:
> > Lived with it because there was no other option. We used LSM while it was 
> > available for modules but then it was taken away. 
> > 
> > And not all vendors even use syscall interception, not even across platforms, 
> > of which you sound so sure about. You can't even scan something which is not 
> > in your namespace if you are at the syscall level. And you can't catch things 
> > like kernel nfsd. No, syscall interception is not really appropriate at all.
> 
> The "Anti-Malware" industry is just snake oil anyway.  I think the
> proper approach to support it is just to add various no-op exports claim
> to do something and all the people requiring anti-virus on Linux will be
> just as happy with it.

The fear is that this becomes a trojan horse (no pun intended) for more 
and more hooks and "stuff", driven by we-really-need-this-too and 
we-really-need-that-too. And once something it's in, it's harder to say no, 
under the pressure of offering a "limited solution".
This ws the reason I threw the syscall tracing thing in, so they have a 
low level generic hook, and they cam knock themselves out in their module 
(might need a few exports, but that's about it).



- Davide


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