Bug 655638

Summary: [RFE] initscripts: kernel: make /proc/kallsyms mode 400 to reduce ease of attacking [rhel-6.1]
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Reporter: Eugene Teo (Security Response) <eteo>
Component: initscriptsAssignee: initscripts Maintenance Team <initscripts-maint-list>
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact: qe-baseos-daemons
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 6.1CC: notting
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: FutureFeature
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Unspecified   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Enhancement
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of:
: 655640 655650 655652 (view as bug list) Environment:
Last Closed: 2010-11-22 04:23:54 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:    
Bug Blocks: 655640, 655650, 655652    

Description Eugene Teo (Security Response) 2010-11-22 02:58:42 UTC
Description of problem:
Making /proc/kallsyms readable only for root by default makes it slightly harder for attackers to write generic kernel exploits by removing one source of knowledge where things are in the kernel.

This was originally committed in the kernel in upstream commit 59365d13 but was later reverted in 33e0d57f. It's unlikely that the upstream kernel would accept this patch again, so what we could do at our side is to "chmod -r /proc/kallsyms" in our bootup scripts. And make sure it doesn't break anything.

http://git.kernel.org/linus/59365d136d205cc20fe666ca7f89b1c5001b0d5a
http://git.kernel.org/linus/33e0d57f5d2f079104611be9f3fccc27ef2c6b24

Comment 1 Bill Nottingham 2010-11-22 04:23:54 UTC
Do it in the kernel, or don't do it. Doing it in initscripts is a kludge.