Messages in this thread |  | | From | Albert Cahalan <> | Subject | Re: boot parameters, init= and security issues | Date | Wed, 5 Jun 1996 13:21:18 -0400 (EDT) |
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From: miquels@drinkel.ow.org (Miquel van Smoorenburg) > Markus Gutschke <gutschk@uni-muenster.de> wrote: >> miquels@cistron.nl (Miquel van Smoorenburg) writes: >> >>> Alas, Linus rejected it. This normally means he thinks it >>> was not a good idea. Hence the request for comment here. >>> Would something like this be useful? Or isn't it because there >>> are other boot options that can be abused to achieve the >>> same effect (and turning them all off would be unacceptable) ? >> >> Off-hand the possibility of using a different root filesystem on a >> removeable medium (floppy disk) springs to mind as yet another obvious >> security threat, but this can probably be avoided, by compiling the >> floppy driver as a module and not allowing for NFS mounted root >> filesystems. Most of the other boot time options probably result in >> making the system rather unreliable and prone to crashes but I am not >> aware of obvious exploits. >> >> Generally, though I am in favor of your proposal. Providing as many >> boot-time security measures as possible sounds like a *very* good idea >> --- but maybe I am just a little bit paranoid :-)
No, because people will think they can rely on them. If someone wants security, they must use the full lilo password.
> I talked with Linus today about these patches, but he thinks the > idea is broken; you should just put a password on the LILO > configuration. I responded that most people do not do this, and > I just wanted to make reasonably sure that a Linux box somewhere > in a university cannot be broken into just by rebooting it (as > long as the sysadm has set the boot sequence to C: A: and put a > password on the BIOS). Most people don't know anything about > LILO configuration.
Lilo could be made to print "Booting * without password...". It could also pass the kernel a variable.
boottype=secure Password protected lilo boottype=insecure Normal lilo boot bootype is unset Used syslinux, loadlin, network boot, old lilo
This lets scripts print out a warning that reminds the admin to set BIOS and lilo passwords.
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