This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled char: lack of bool string made CONFIG_DEVPORT always on to the 4.9-stable tree which can be found at: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary The filename of the patch is: char-lack-of-bool-string-made-config_devport-always-on.patch and it can be found in the queue-4.9 subdirectory. If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree, please let <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> know about it. >From f2cfa58b136e4b06a9b9db7af5ef62fbb5992f62 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Max Bires <jbires@xxxxxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2017 08:18:07 -0800 Subject: char: lack of bool string made CONFIG_DEVPORT always on From: Max Bires <jbires@xxxxxxxxxx> commit f2cfa58b136e4b06a9b9db7af5ef62fbb5992f62 upstream. Without a bool string present, using "# CONFIG_DEVPORT is not set" in defconfig files would not actually unset devport. This esnured that /dev/port was always on, but there are reasons a user may wish to disable it (smaller kernel, attack surface reduction) if it's not being used. Adding a message here in order to make this user visible. Signed-off-by: Max Bires <jbires@xxxxxxxxxx> Acked-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- drivers/char/Kconfig | 5 ++++- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) --- a/drivers/char/Kconfig +++ b/drivers/char/Kconfig @@ -571,9 +571,12 @@ config TELCLOCK controlling the behavior of this hardware. config DEVPORT - bool + bool "/dev/port character device" depends on ISA || PCI default y + help + Say Y here if you want to support the /dev/port device. The /dev/port + device is similar to /dev/mem, but for I/O ports. source "drivers/s390/char/Kconfig" Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from jbires@xxxxxxxxxx are queue-4.9/char-lack-of-bool-string-made-config_devport-always-on.patch