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Message-ID: <CAKPWWNFhqP==HfQC6aV=OFs6Ud6bBDa9hpCrvih8BxDUDo87JA@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 16:27:54 -0700
From: Alon Nafta <alon@...vatecore.com>
To: Ben Hutchings <ben@...adent.org.uk>
Cc: David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
David Laight <David.Laight@...lab.com>,
netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
Grant Grundler <grantgrundler@...il.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/4 V2] Ethernet drivers in 3.14-rc3 kernel: fix 3 buffer
overflows triggered by hardware devices
I don't think they should be trusted at all, at least not to a point
where it's feasible for them to execute code on your system.
USB drivers, filesystem drivers, peripheral drivers - they're all on
the same boat, obviously having different levels of severity depending
on driver popularity.
>
> There is a real question as to how much peripherals should be trusted.
>
> We already try to avoid trusting USB devices at all, because many
> machines have ports that are accessible to users that shouldn't be fully
> trusted. (Also, users may assume it's just as safe to plug in a 'USB
> stick' they were given, as it is to insert a disc or memory card.) A
> bug in the HID subsystem has apparently been exploited in the past for
> code injection.
>
> Given that some machines also have easily accessible hotplug PCI(e)
> ports (CardBus, ExpressCard, Thunderbolt), and that those can be
> distrusted at the hardware level (using an IOMMU), it seems like a
> worthwhile goal to distrust them at the software level. However, as you
> hinted, this is a big job since any vulnerable driver that's installed
> can be exploited.
>
> Ben.
>
> --
> Ben Hutchings
> Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
> - Albert Einstein
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