RE: [PATCH] e1000e: write protect ICHx NVM to prevent malicious write/erase

[Brandeburg, Jesse]

Jiri Kosina wrote:
>> Set the hardware to ignore all write/erase cycles to the GbE region
>> in the ICHx NVM.  This feature can be disabled by the
>> WriteProtectNVM module parameter (enabled by default) only after a
>> hardware reset, but 
>> the machine must be power cycled before trying to enable writes.

> Does this impose any user-visible behavior change? (such as not being
> able to set up wake-on-lan, change MAC address, whatever).

no, because none of that is stored permanently in the eeprom unless you
do writes with ethtool -E.  Our policy for the driver is generally don't
ever write to the eeprom.  So all the normal paths (except for initial
start on preproduction hardware and ethtool -E writes) do not write to
the eeprom.

Currently the driver will let you try to commit a change but with this
patch it will never get written to NVM unless you reboot, load driver
(the first time!) with WriteProtectNVM=0 and *then* do ethtool -E.
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/