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Bug#383600: behaviour of update-initramfs -u has changed, only updates latest kernel initrd



severity 383600 serious
thanks

Sven Luther wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 18, 2006 at 07:03:52PM +0200, Michael Biebl wrote:
>> Eduard Bloch wrote:
>>> #include <hallo.h>
>>> * Michael Biebl [Fri, Aug 18 2006, 01:07:34PM]:
>>>> Eduard Bloch wrote:
>>>>> #include <hallo.h>
>>>>> * Michael Biebl [Fri, Aug 18 2006, 10:26:53AM]:
>>>>>> I suggest to revert to the old behaviour and make "-u" update all
>>>>>> installed kernels. Atm I have to specify each kernel separately vi -k to
>>>>>> update them all.
>>>>> Why should one update _all_ initramfs images when beeing interested in
>>>>> only single one? 
>>>> Why should I be only interested in only a single one? If I install e.g.
>>> Because usualy it gets executed when you install a kernel-image package?
>> Just grep for update-initramfs  in /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.postinst.
>> I get uswsusp, cryptsetup, mdadm and udev on my machine.
>> They all simply call update-initramfs -u.
>> This means that security updates of these packages are not automatically
>> applied to all installed kernels which is a major security issue imho.
>> If you insist that update-initramfs -u only updates the latest kernel,
>> you should file bug reports against all packages using update-initramfs -u.
> 

I'm raising the severity to serious, because as already outlined,
packages that call update-initramfs -u in postinst (such as udev) won't
update all installed initrds anymore. These means that security fixes of
these packages aren't applied to all installed kernels anymore keeping a
system potentially vulnerable (the latest kernel is not necessarily the
default boot kernel!)
I'm filing these bug against initramfs-tools itself, because you missed
to inform other maintainers in advance, giving them time to change their
postinst scripts, that you intend to change the default behaviour of
update-initramfs -u.
If you want to keep the current behaviour, you should file bug reports
against all affected packages and add them as blocking bugs against this
one.

Cheers,
Michael


-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

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