Re: [patch 0/8] kzfree()

[Pekka Enberg]

Hi Andrew,

Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:29:26 +0100 Johannes Weiner <hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > This series introduces kzfree() and converts callsites which do
> > memset() + kfree() explicitely.
>
> I dunno, this looks like putting lipstick on a pig.
>
> What is the point in zeroing memory just before freeing it?  afacit
> this is always done as a poor-man's poisoning operation.

I think they do it as security paranoia to make sure other callers don't 
accidentally see parts of crypto keys, passwords, and such. So I don't 
think we can just get rid of the memsets.

			Pekka
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