netdev - Re: [PATCH 00/15] net: taint when the device driver firmware crashes

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Date:   Mon, 11 May 2020 14:13:27 +0000
From:   Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@...nel.org>
To:     Shannon Nelson <snelson@...sando.io>
Cc:     Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>, jeyu@...nel.org,
        akpm@...ux-foundation.org, arnd@...db.de, rostedt@...dmis.org,
        mingo@...hat.com, aquini@...hat.com, cai@....pw, dyoung@...hat.com,
        bhe@...hat.com, peterz@...radead.org, tglx@...utronix.de,
        gpiccoli@...onical.com, pmladek@...e.com, tiwai@...e.de,
        schlad@...e.de, andriy.shevchenko@...ux.intel.com,
        keescook@...omium.org, daniel.vetter@...ll.ch, will@...nel.org,
        mchehab+samsung@...nel.org, kvalo@...eaurora.org,
        davem@...emloft.net, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 00/15] net: taint when the device driver firmware crashes

On Sat, May 09, 2020 at 07:15:23PM -0700, Shannon Nelson wrote:
> On 5/9/20 6:58 PM, Andrew Lunn wrote:
> > On Sat, May 09, 2020 at 06:01:51PM -0700, Shannon Nelson wrote:
> > As for firmware, how much damage can the firmware do as it crashed? If
> > it is a DMA master, it could of splattered stuff through
> > memory. Restarting the firmware is not going to reverse the damage it
> > has done.
> > 
> True, and tho' the driver might get the thing restarted, it wouldn't
> necessarily know what kind of damage had ensued.

Indeed, it is those uknowns which we currently assume is just fine, but
in reality can be damaging. Today we just move on with life, but such
information is useful for analysis.

  Luis