Re: [patch 0/8] kzfree()

[Andrew Morton]

On Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:58:14 +0200 Pekka Enberg <penberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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.

Ok, you're right - I thought only a couple were doing that but it looks like
all of them except for perhaps ATM are being non-stupid.
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