Re: ANNOUNCE: /dev/bios - flash rom bios driver

David Woodhouse (Dave@imladris.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 11 Feb 1998 16:27:41 +0000

stepan@wesley.informatik.uni-freiburg.de said:
> Ok, it is much more dangerous for the hardware to do a cat /dev/zero >/
> dev/bios than cat /dev/zero >/dev/sda, but in both cases the system
> is a) unusable and needs reinstall/repair and b) can be quite easily
> repaired.

Can it really be repaired easily? I thought that the procedure was to go with
your tail between your legs to your vendor and ask nicely for a new set of BIOS
chips.

> Taking away a driver's universal usability for "system security" or
> whatever is IMHO not the way we should go.

Agreed. How about having a sysctl variable which needs to be set in order to
allow writing to the BIOS? Also, doesn't the official BIOS generally come with
checksums to prevent accidental damage? Couldn't we use these?

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David Woodhouse, Robinson College, CB3 9AN, England. (+44) 0976 658355
Dave@imladris.demon.co.uk http://dwmw2.robinson.cam.ac.uk
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