Security vulnerability found in Rust Linux kernel code(git.kernel.org)
37 pointsby lelanthran2 months ago7 comments
  • jsiepkes2 months ago
    I don't get why this is noteworthy? It's literally a piece of code in a Rust "unsafe" block. If you put something in an "unsafe" block the compiler isn't going to help you, you are on your own. That's why it's called "unsafe".

    Now what is kinda interesting is that instead of getting rid of the "unsafe" block the developers put in some extra check. I guess you can take the developer out of C but you can't take the C out of the developer?

    • aw16211072 months ago
      > Now what is kinda interesting is that instead of getting rid of the "unsafe" block the developers put in some extra check. I guess you can take the developer out of C but you can't take the C out of the developer?

      The patch devs said that they're interested in larger-scale changes to get rid of the need for `unsafe` in this kind of situation, but since that'll take time it's more important to just fix the bug for now.

      [0]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20251111-binder-fix-list-remove-...

    • 2 months ago
      undefined
  • aw16211072 months ago
    Effectively a dupe of this thread from ~14 hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46302621 (130 comments as of this comment)
  • dizhn2 months ago
    The URL this points to does not say anything about security. There's an example of a race condition causing memory corruption and a crash.
  • thesz2 months ago
    The mistake there is a classical example of why (software) transactional memory is valuable. Double linked lists are trivial in single core execution, need PhD level understanding of everything in multicore execution and become trivial again in multicore execution with (S)TM.

    Rust has troubles with STM because it lacks anything resembling effect system. Most probably, this will not be fixed.

    • dlahoda2 months ago
      may you share links to read or vote to understand better and push for?
      • thesza month ago
        https://timharris.uk/papers/2005-ppopp-composable.pdf - Composable Memory Transactions.

        Page 13 discuss why imperative approach like Rust's may fail in delivering transactional memory and why arbitrary-side-effect-free transactions in Haskell are, in fact, very composable due to effects separation inside STM and IO monads.

  • arowthway2 months ago
    I hate this bot-detection anime girl popping up on my monitor while I pretend to be working. Same goes for the funny pictures at the beginning of some Github readmes. Sorry for complaining about a tangential annoyance, but I haven't seen this particular sentiment expressed yet.
    • megnu2 months ago
      I use a uBlock Origin filter to block the anime girl from loading:

        ! Title: Hide Anubis Image
  */.within.website/x/cmd/anubis/static/img/*.webp$image
    • sebtron2 months ago
      Normally I don't mind, but on this page it took at least 15 seconds for me.
    • jraph2 months ago
      It is expressed very often.
    • udjdndndjdjr2 months ago
      I had an idea!

      Instead of using this to do some proof of work, why not just get the bot detector to mine bitcoin or something...

      I mean it is just as useless... And at least the website gets some money back from the raw extraction of data now happening...

      Edit: speeeeeling

      • dlahoda2 months ago
        this was the plan, this was the plan. just wait little bit it get spread more.
      • udjdndndjdjr2 months ago
        Also this is a joke
  • 2 months ago
    undefined
  • pityJuke2 months ago
    Within the Android drivers, right?
    • jeroenhd2 months ago
      Technically, binder is still part of Linux, even if it's not enabled by default in many cases.

      This "security vulnerability" is just a local DoS though. Annoying and problematic as it effectively bypasses controls over power on/off behaviour, but as far as I can tell from this report, no memory is leaked and no code execution can be achieved.

      • yourdetect2 months ago
        It's UB, it is not memory safe, so in theory, and often also in practice with this specific kind of bug, absolutely anything could happen, including code execution.

        Greg Kroah-Hartman's comment is both wrong and perplexing.

    • uhfraid2 months ago
      yes