Re: QUESTION: 32-bit UIDs and Linux 2.3

Marc Mutz (Marc@Mutz.com)
Fri, 09 Jul 1999 13:35:05 +0200

Albert D. Cahalan wrote:
>
> Chris Wing writes:
>
> > How much backwards compatibility do you think there should be:
> >
> Suggested rules:
>
> 1. Always allow 32-bit calls.
>
> 2. Always have 16-bit calls in the kernel. (see below)
>
> 3. Let unprivileged processes get garbage UID values. The software
> isn't very dangerous, and it might work fine.
>
> 4. If any large UID is ever set for any process, privileged processes
> must not be allowed to make any 16-bit calls. Log the problem,
> stop the process, and return failure if the process continues.
>
> 5. Have a run-time config option to kill any privileged process that
> tries to use a 16-bit call.
>
> 6. Have a run-time config option to allow 16-bit calls from privileged
> processes that are not setuid.
>
Hmm, altough I'm fully aware of these points being restricted to UID
issues, it is very reminiscent of the win16->win32 transition and all
its pain (& overhead). Esp. items 4-6 seem rather ugly to me. Was this
meant to be a temporary workaround - maybe introduced in 2.3/2.4 and
then 2.6/3.0 support only 32bit-UID - or do such things become legacy
ballast until a 'Linux NT' is written from scratch to remove all of
this?

Marc

-- 
Marc Mutz <Marc@Mutz.com>                    http://marc.mutz.com/
University of Bielefeld, Dep. of Mathematics / Dep. of Physics


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