lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2002]   [Oct]   [23]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
SubjectRe: One for the Security Guru's
From
Date

> The consultants aparantly told the company admins that kernel modules
> were a massive security hole and extremely easy targets for root kits.
> As a result every machine has a 100% monolithic kernel, some of them
> ranging to 1.9Meg in filesize. This of course provides some other
> sticky points such as how to do a kernel boot image.

i very much doubt this would stop anyone who really wanted todo
something like loading a module.

Stating something like that would also mean booting the kernel from
a disk inside the machine is also insecure.

As to load a module you must be root and if you are root you
can read / write disks. Thus you could recompile your own kernel
install it try to force a crash or a reboot which is not hard as root
and the person may not even notice that the kernel has grown by a few
bytes after the crash.

The only thing it may do is slow somebody down.
A lot of people out there if they can get access to a system
and cannot keep it will also tend todo a rm -rfv /
or equivelent nasty.

James

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2005-03-22 13:30    [W:0.192 / U:0.464 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site