makedumpfile security key enhancement using SIAL

Hi Luc,

We are looking for utilising SIAL as a language construct for the makedumpfile kernel data filtering from vmcore feature. The details of which are in the mail forward.

The proposed enhancement will require libsial.a and as SIAL is not currently built/shipped, we are looking for possibilities on how libsial.a can be made available to makedumpfile. Please let us know your opinion on the same.

Regards,
Aravinda

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: makedumpfile security key enhancement using SIAL
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:27:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Dave Anderson <[email protected]>
To: Aravinda Prasad <[email protected]>
CC: Atsushi Kumagai <[email protected]>, Masaki
Tachibana <[email protected]>, Ananth N
Mavinakayanahalli <[email protected]>, Mahesh J Salgaonkar
<[email protected]>

----- Original Message -----

Quoted 16 lines

Hi Dave,

Last year, we worked on the makedumpfile security key filtering where we added support to filter out kernel data from vmcore. This year, we are working on enhancing the framework to provide more flexibility for the customers to specify rules to traverse and filter out kernel data - for which we are planning to use SIAL.

We are looking into using SIAL as language construct to specify rules/commands to erase data in the image file. The makedumpfile would interpret the rules provided in SIAL macro using SIAL library (which could be dynamically loaded) and erase out suitable data in the vmcore. We are planning to reuse SIAL as it provides a C language like construct, which is flexible and powerful enough to specify rules to erase data in vmcore.

Quoted 3 lines

As SIAL is not built and shipped along with crash, we are looking for possibilities on how SIAL can be leveraged by makedumpfile and would like to know your opinion.

Sorry but I cannot give you any help with SIAL. Luc Chouinard is the maintainer of the SIAL extension module adaptation for the crash utility, and he can answer your questions w/respect to adapting it for makedumpfile. And ultimately, that's a question for the makedumpfile maintainers.

Dave

Hello Aravinda,

I have two questions, could you answer me ?

First, what problems do you have about the current format of makedumpfile.conf ?

Second, what benefits do you expect from using SIAL ? I can't imagine specific benefits with using SIAL now.

By the way, could you add kexec-ML to CC field from next time ?

kexec mailing list:
[email protected]
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/kexec

Thanks
Atsushi Kumagai

Quoted 53 lines · On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:28:21 +0530 Aravinda…

Hi Luc,

We are looking for utilising SIAL as a language construct for the makedumpfile kernel data filtering from vmcore feature. The details of which are in the mail forward.

The proposed enhancement will require libsial.a and as SIAL is not currently built/shipped, we are looking for possibilities on how libsial.a can be made available to makedumpfile. Please let us know your opinion on the same.

Regards,
Aravinda

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: makedumpfile security key enhancement using SIAL
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:27:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Dave Anderson<[email protected]>
To: Aravinda Prasad<[email protected]>
CC: Atsushi Kumagai<[email protected]>, Masaki
Tachibana<[email protected]>, Ananth N
Mavinakayanahalli<[email protected]>, Mahesh J Salgaonkar
<[email protected]>

----- Original Message -----

Quoted 16 lines

Hi Dave,

Last year, we worked on the makedumpfile security key filtering where we added support to filter out kernel data from vmcore. This year, we are working on enhancing the framework to provide more flexibility for the customers to specify rules to traverse and filter out kernel data - for which we are planning to use SIAL.

We are looking into using SIAL as language construct to specify rules/commands to erase data in the image file. The makedumpfile would interpret the rules provided in SIAL macro using SIAL library (which could be dynamically loaded) and erase out suitable data in the vmcore. We are planning to reuse SIAL as it provides a C language like construct, which is flexible and powerful enough to specify rules to erase data in vmcore.

Quoted 3 lines

As SIAL is not built and shipped along with crash, we are looking for possibilities on how SIAL can be leveraged by makedumpfile and would like to know your opinion.

Sorry but I cannot give you any help with SIAL. Luc Chouinard is the maintainer of the SIAL extension module adaptation for the crash utility, and he can answer your questions w/respect to adapting it for makedumpfile. And ultimately, that's a question for the makedumpfile maintainers.

Quoted 1 line

Dave

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Quoted 5 lines · Atsushi Kumagai

Hello Aravinda,

I have two questions, could you answer me ?

First, what problems do you have about the current format of makedumpfile.conf ?

Even though makedumpfile.conf is capable of filtering out data from the vmocore, it is not possible to specify and erase complex data-structures. For example it is not possible to traverse a nested list or a tree and then erase a particular node based on some conditions. Extending makedumpfile.conf to support these would require implementing a lot of language constructs. But we can reuse SIAL instead of extending makedumpfile.conf.

Quoted 2 lines

Second, what benefits do you expect from using SIAL ? I can't imagine specific benefits with using SIAL now.

SIAL can be used as a language construct to specify rules/commands to erase data in the image file. The makedumpfile would interpret the rules/commands provided by SIAL macros with the help of SIAL library and would suitably erase the required data in the dump file. As SIAL provides a lot of language constructs like conditional statements, logical and arithmetic operators, nested loops, functions etc, it would be possible to traverse nested lists and trees and conditionally erase data in the dump file, enabling users to literally erase any data in the dump file.

Hello Aravinda,

Quoted 18 lines · On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:56:30 +0530 Aravinda…

Quoted 5 lines · Atsushi Kumagai

Hello Aravinda,

I have two questions, could you answer me ?

First, what problems do you have about the current format of makedumpfile.conf ?

Even though makedumpfile.conf is capable of filtering out data from the vmocore, it is not possible to specify and erase complex data-structures. For example it is not possible to traverse a nested list or a tree and then erase a particular node based on some conditions. Extending makedumpfile.conf to support these would require implementing a lot of language constructs. But we can reuse SIAL instead of extending makedumpfile.conf.

Quoted 2 lines

Second, what benefits do you expect from using SIAL ? I can't imagine specific benefits with using SIAL now.

Quoted 9 lines

SIAL can be used as a language construct to specify rules/commands to erase data in the image file. The makedumpfile would interpret the rules/commands provided by SIAL macros with the help of SIAL library and would suitably erase the required data in the dump file. As SIAL provides a lot of language constructs like conditional statements, logical and arithmetic operators, nested loops, functions etc, it would be possible to traverse nested lists and trees and conditionally erase data in the dump file, enabling users to literally erase any data in the dump file.

Thank you for your explanation.
It seems good to specify rules with SIAL.

If makedumpfile uses SIAL library, I will discard the current format of makedumpfile.conf to reduce the size of source code.
What do you think about it ?

Thanks
Atsushi Kumagai