Re: ext2 ext3 ?

[Peter Whysall <peter.whysall@ntlworld.com>]

on Wed, Oct 02, 2002, Eric Boese-Wolf (boesewolf@vdst-ka.inka.de) wrote:
> It really worths knowing how to compile a custom kernel. Many things are
> really faster if you don't have to use them as module. And think of the 
> security improvement if you can disable the LKM-Mechanism as a whole.

Could you explain this?

Firstly, I'm not aware of performance improvement or degradation arising
from the use or non-use of modules per se - however, I've never gone
looking for it. I've always used modules for their convenience value,
rather than their ability to make my system go faster or slower.
Information on this would be interesting.

I'm interested to know about security implications of the kernel module
system. Presumably you're thinking of a scenario where an attacker gets
sufficient privilege to replace mymodule.o with a malicious mymodule.o,
therefore gaining some nefarious ability. Well, while not totally
unfeasible, this scenario is unlikely and doesn't bother me for the
following reason: if you've been rooted, you're looking at nuking the
system and restoring data anyway.

However, there might be more subtle aspects to this that I don't get.
Wouldn't be the first time :-)

Regards

Peter.