Subject: Re: Looking ahead
To: NetBSD Embedded Systems Technical Discussion List <tech-embed@NetBSD.org>
From: Allen Briggs <briggs@netbsd.org>
List: tech-embed
Date: 06/05/2007 13:53:56
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On Tue, Jun 05, 2007 at 01:22:07PM -0400, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> > * Support for layered security for LKMs (LKMs have no access to
> > 	ring 0 on x86?)
> That last idea seems contrary to the very idea of embedded systems in
> general, never mind contrary to fundamental good security goals overall.

I'd be interested to see more discussion about this.  I don't
know the x86 privilege model and don't currently have much interest
in x86-based embedded systems, but it seems reasonable to give LKMs
different levels of trust.

As I mentioned, I see "embedded" running a pretty wide range of
systems and applications.  I tend toward working with/on the smaller,
networked, minimal/serial console kind of systems, but others might
be handheld PCs, game systems, metro-scale routers, DVRs, etc.  There
are some cases where I can see LKMs in use and yet not fully trusted
with full system access.

-allen

--=20
Allen Briggs  |  http://www.ninthwonder.com/~briggs/  |  briggs@ninthwonder=
=2Ecom

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