Re: [PATCH v2 2/6] driver core: Add common support to skip probe for un-authorized devices

[Andi Kleen]

> Forget about trust for the moment.  Let's say the goal is to prevent
> the kernel from creating any bindings other that those in some small
> "allowed" set.  To fully specify one of the allowed bindings, you
> would have to provide both a device ID and a driver name.  But in
> practice this isn't necessary, since a device with a given ID will
> bind to only one driver in almost all cases, and hence giving just
> the device ID is enough.
>
> So to do what they want, all that's needed is to forbid any bindings
> except where the device ID is "allowed".  Or to put it another way,
> where the device's authorized flag (which can be initialized based on
> the device ID) is set.
>
> (The opposite approach, in which the drivers are "allowed" rather
> than the device IDs, apparently has already been discussed and
> rejected.  I'm not convinced that was a good decision, but...)
>
> Does this seem like a fair description of the situation?

Yes. That's roughly what the patchkit under discussion implements.


-Andi