Follow @Openwall on Twitter for new release announcements and other news
[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2022 13:14:29 -0800
From: Pawan Gupta <pawan.kumar.gupta@...ux.intel.com>
To: Stefan Bavendiek <stefan.bavendiek@...lbox.org>
Cc: kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com, linux-hardening@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Reducing runtime complexity

On Thu, Dec 01, 2022 at 09:09:04PM +0100, Stefan Bavendiek wrote:
>Some time ago I wrote a thesis about complexity in the Linux kernel and
>how to reduce it in order to limit the attack surface[1]. While the
>results are unlikely to bring news to the audience here, it did
>indicate some possible ways to avoid exposing optional kernel features
>when they are not needed. The basic idea would be to either build or
>configure parts of the kernel after or during the installation on a
>specific host. Distributions are commonly shipping the kernel as one
>large binary that includes support for nearly every hardware driver and
>optional feature

Is this really true? Most drivers are built as loadable modules and are
only loaded when the hardware is present.

Are you suggesting to configure-out the modules that are always static?
This sounds like an embedded system build.

Download attachment "signature.asc" of type "application/pgp-signature" (834 bytes)

Powered by blists - more mailing lists

Confused about mailing lists and their use? Read about mailing lists on Wikipedia and check out these guidelines on proper formatting of your messages.