Re: [patch 1/4] Add routine for generating an ID for kernel pointer

From: Cyrill Gorcunov
Date: Wed Dec 28 2011 - 12:14:24 EST


On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 09:01:16AM -0800, Tejun Heo wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 08:53:36PM +0400, Cyrill Gorcunov wrote:
> > Well, it is not deciding but it should be taken into account. One could
> > be reading this IDs again and again and again affecting performance of
> > the whole system,
>
> I can't see how it would affect performance of the whole system.
> Calculating hash doesn't involve any further locking or use of scarce
> global resource. It would add small amount memory and processing
> overhead for the task reading the hash. It sure is something to be
> considered but I really don't think this should be a major factor
> here.
>

Yeah, indeed.

> > which means I really would prefer to limit access to such
> > features (ie root-only). If (as I said) for other cases there is simply no way to
> > _not_ use crypto, our case might be the one where using crypto is redundant.
>
> Limiting it to root and just exporting printer (or maybe XOR with a
> randomish value) may be good enough. I don't know. However, we no
> longer consider exporting pointers to unpriviliedged userland safe and
> this can be useful in many circumstances, so if it's not too
> difficult, I think trying to use proper hash would be nide.

OK, Tejun, I'll try, but no promises :) Thanks!

Cyrill
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