Well, since the original initrd is vendor provided you could simply ask for a md5sum of the current initrd and match it against existing / known initrds... No? Thiago Galesi On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 8:26 AM, Ritesh Raj Sarraf <rrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi, > > I hope it is not too late to discuss this problem. > I have a bugzilla filed for this, filed here: > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=435033 > > The problem described in the above bugzilla entry is about "How do we > authenticate initrd images" > We sure have a huge dependency on the initrd. And day-by-day that dependency > is increasing. Multipath SAN Boot, NFS et cetera all depend on the proper > execution of an initrd image. > > We see a lot of problems in the SAN space, where users end up shuffling among > 2 versions of HBA drivers. One from the OS Vendor, the other from the HBA > vendor. And then we see IHVs and ISVs using their own set of utils to tamper > the initrd. This is just an example. > > Currently, we don't have a way to identify, like what initrd image has the > OS booted from. And we don't have a way to verify whether the initrd image > from which the OS has booted from (and ended up with a bug), is the same > initrd image that the OS vendor generates. > > Since this is a re-write effort, I'd like to know opinions here. > * Do we see this situation as a problem ? > * If yes, how can we overcome it ? > > I have some proposals listed in the bugzilla, but all are half-baked. I hope > with your help, we can come up with a better approach. Probably, we just > need a set of strict and enforcing assumptions. > > Ritesh > -- > If possible, Please CC me when replying. I'm not subscribed to the list. > > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe initramfs" in > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > -- - Thiago Galesi -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe initramfs" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html