Re: Sealing the kernel
Dimitris Margaritis (Dimitris_Margaritis@sage.learning.cs.cmu.edu)
Tue, 26 Oct 1999 14:09:39 -0400
> You have a good idea...But what goes is it really when the person can just
> go ahead a recompile a kernel...replace the current one and then cause the
> system to "crash". Unless of course you are booting off of some sort of
> read-only media(A write protected floppy comes to mind). Also, another
> idea, backdoor insmod/modprobe so that your special module doesn't get
> loaded again in the future. Its really impossible to protect the machine
> from root. Sure you can keep them out of the kernel level stuff. But
> what good is that really? The root user could still do nasty things to
> your system regardless.
>
>
> Aaron
>
Yes, John forgot to mention that we're assuming boot from a read-only
media such as a write-protected floppy or CD-ROM. We also assume
that the rc scripts, kernel, and all modules to be loaded at boot
time (before of course the sealing module) also reside on that medium.
About your last point, yes, root can do a lot of nasty things, but by
sealing the kernel at least they are constrained to what's available
through kernel services. That may help presumably by disabling a lot
of stuff in the running kernel.
--
Dimitris
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