3 ms·

How would you go about testing system calls?

• rbanffy 16y ago
  Why not? I understand device drivers cannot be easily tested (unless we write accurate hardware simulators, which can be done with a lot of effort), and the same happens with time-critical stuff (that could be solved with even more hardware emulation) but this kind of stuff (checking if a known exploit fails) could and should be tested in automated fashion. Not everything can be tested reliably and automatically, but what can, should.
  • mfukar 16y ago
    Oh, you're talking about regression testing. While you have a point, I'd like to point out a recent vulnerability [1] that would likely fail many a test for two reasons: - The bug is not concrete. It's not entirely in the kernel, and it's not entirely in userspace. - The developers have a poor understanding of the bug. The current "fix" only mitigates the problem. There are system configurations where it can still be exploited. There are other issues [2] that arise from large address space management that are waiting to be fixed because of this. But I agree that regression testing for the whole kernel tree should probably be implemented. (for the various subsystems, many developers develop their own test suites) [1] http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/2010/08/skeletons-hidden-in-linux-closet.html http://theinvisiblethings.blogspot.com/2010/08/skeletons-hid... [2] http://grsecurity.net/~spender/64bit_dos.c http://grsecurity.net/~spender/64bit_dos.c
    • deleted 16y ago
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