Re: [PATCH][ATM] use rtnl_{lock,unlock} during device operations (take 2)

Mitchell Blank Jr (mitch@sfgoth.com)
Fri, 6 Jun 2003 14:54:06 -0700


David S. Miller wrote:
> (If you want to keep Chas busy, the communication between
> the kernel and its demons may be a much more interesting
> topic ;-)
>
> Tell me it at least uses netlink ;(

No.... not even close :-(

The really gross part is that it uses kernel-land pointers as "opaque" VC
descriptors, so basically if atmsigd goes nuts in can easily stomp all
over the kernel's memory. Way back when I added a CAP_SYS_RAWIO check to
the ATMSIGD_CTRL ioctl so at least there's no security hole but it's still
damn gross (no offense, Werner :-)

I agree that fixing that old cruft would be a lot more productive than
trying to shoehorn the ATM devices into the netdevice framework.

-Mitch
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