Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:18:07 -0700 (PDT) | From | david@lang ... | Subject | Re: Security: information leaks in /proc enable keystroke recovery |
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On Sat, 15 Aug 2009, Theodore Tso wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 12:44:14AM +0000, David Wagner wrote: >> Theodore Tso wrote: >>> A configuration option which defaults to disabling ESP and EIP would >>> be a simple way to prevent this specific instance of information >>> leakage. The problem is there are other files that might reveal >>> timing information, but which are very useful for a system >>> administrator. A key example of this is /proc/$pid/wchan, which is >>> responsible for the WCHAN column is a ps listing. >> >> If they're useful for system administrators, would making them >> readable to root (but not everyone) be enough? > > I suppose sysadmins use "sudo ps" instead of "ps", but that would be a > bit inconvenient and would certainly clutter the sudo logs. It might > also cause people to decide it's more trouble than it's worth, and > configure their system not restrict the various proc files. > > That's why I think it would be useful to restrict the number of times > any process in the system can sample the files before the system > starts inserting random delays, thus destroying the usefulness of > using wchan for mounting timing attacks, without removing system > functionality.
would it make sense to limit the precision of the times reported? or cache the results for some time period?
David Lang
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