In <Pine.LNX.4.10.10007231218080.8020-100000@dax.joh.cam.ac.uk> James Sutherland (jas88@cam.ac.uk) wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Jul 2000, TimO wrote:
>> "H. Peter Anvin" wrote:
>> >
>> > Followup to: <Pine.LNX.4.10.10007212041090.15902-100000@master.linux-ide.org>
>> > By author: Andre Hedrick <andre@linux-ide.org>
>> > In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
>> > >
>> > > Everyone
>> > >
>> > > I am talking about attempting to invoke unknown vender specific commands
>> > > They do comply with the SPEC but are not part of the SPEC.
>> > > Since I do not have the priviledge of knowing these facts, but know they
>> > > exist. You can not allow a rouge driver attempt to invoke these commands.
>> > >
>> >
>> > A rogue driver can always do this by writing straight to the
>> > interface. I think a more serious issue is: what about a *buggy*
>> > drivers? However, what I am a bit unclear of is the following: will
>> > this patch prevent me from writing a driver which issues legitimate
>> > vendor-specific commands to control vendor-specific aspects of a
>> > particular piece of hardware? If so, that would be a very bad thing.
>> > However, if this patch is there to prevent buggy programs from issuing
>> > known-to-be-damaging commands by accient, then that is a Good
>> > Thing[TM].
>>
>> Vendor-specific commands would not be allowed through the kernel. A
>> specific program for a specific vendor would have to use RAW_IO; ie
>> for firmware upgrades.
> NO. They can/will use RAW_IO *IF* this is available to them.
Yes.
> If not, they will have to provide a proper kernel driver for their hardware.
No. They will provide you Windows binary and say "Linux does not allow us to
write such a program so you need Windows to upgrade firmware".
> I know which I prefer...
And I know wich I prefer :-)
>> > I personally would have to agree with the people that say this isn't a
>> > security issue, but I *do* believe that protecting buggy programs (we
>> > never have any of those, right?) from causing permanent damage to the
>> > hardware is a very useful thing.
>>
>> This is EXACTLY what Andre is trying to accomplish.
> Yep - WTF is wrong with that?
Right goal, inadequate tools.
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