Re: [PATCH RFC 0/3] drivers/char: remove /dev/kmem for good

From: Steven Rostedt
Date: Fri Mar 19 2021 - 14:11:05 EST


On Fri, 19 Mar 2021 15:34:49 +0100
David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Let's start a discussion if /dev/kmem is worth keeping around and
> fixing/maintaining or if we should just remove it now for good.

The last time I used /dev/kmem was in 2003. While in Germany, my home
firewall (in the US) got rooted. I could ssh into the box but had no way to
shut it down because the rootkit took over all those commands (luckily it
still allowed me to become root). I finally killed the box with:

# ls -lR / > /dev/kmem

;-)

But today I have other means of killing the box (or at least crippling it).
Thus, it's obsolete in my book.

-- Steve