3 ms·
The fix as submitted by the Chinese author was secure, but it triggered a compiler warning because it was not standard conforming C. A kernel maintainer applie
by microtherion 7y ago
The fix as submitted by the Chinese author was secure, but it triggered a compiler warning because it was not standard conforming C.
A kernel maintainer applied an incorrect fix for this warning, which ended up defeating the purpose of the fix.
I don’t think you can blame the author for the bad fix.
- tedunangst 7y agoThey're clearly playing 4D chess and submitted a patch with a warning in anticipation of the next guy breaking it while trying to fix it.
- segfaultbuserr 7y agoOr that the author of the article and his infosec company has connection to the Chinese government, so he asked the Chinese security service to do an inside job, and he would expose it later to increase the sales of grsecurity, which in turns support the secret service... It is one of the only few logical conclusions one can draw if one insists on OP's opinion that the Chinese attackers are playing 4D chess. The chance is non-zero, but doesn't make much sense.
- ncmncm 7y agoIt conformed to a Standard, just not the archaic one Linus uses.
- microtherion 7y agoAh yes, you're quite right, this is legal C99 and C11, but not legal C90. I'm more of a C++ programmer, and the C code I deal with tends to be ancient, so I had forgotten that this became legal at some point.
- ncmncm 7y agoC people don't like to think about how much C took from C++. const, "//" comments, function prototypes, more recently declarations anywhere in the block. "I can provide you anything save relevance."