Messages in this thread |  | | From | Joe Buck <> | Subject | Java in Linux kernel: some issues | Date | Tue, 14 May 96 10:16:38 PDT |
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Brian,
Good job putting in the Linux support, but I have some problems with it. I'm worried about security; I don't see a mechanism to restrict setuid Java binaries, and since a shell is used, this opens up a number of security holes. (Pardon me if I missed something here).
Also, I'm troubled by wiring in paths to the kernel; this is done nowhere else that I'm aware of. Any CD-ROM distributor that gets permission from Sun to ship the JDK, for example, would need to modify the kernel since the Linux filesystem standard forbids distributors from putting anything in /usr/local. Furthermore you're requiring /bin/bash: Linux needs bash to configure the kernel for building but otherwise it's not a requirement. Finally a number of free Java tools are becoming available; these may not work the same way as the JDK ones, for example the interpreter might be replaced by a just-in-time compiler that is not a script.
This problem might be dealt with by adding a level of indirection, e.g. a configuration file (say /etc/java.conf) would contain the commands needed to exec java applications and applets -- this file could then be changed without modifying the kernel.
Joe Buck
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