Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2001 17:09:28 -0800 (PST) From: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> To: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au> Cc: freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG, Dave <mudman@R181172.resnet.ucsb.edu> Subject: RE: options USER_LDT Message-ID: <XFMail.011201170928.jhb@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <20011202120451.R6917-100000@gamplex.bde.org>
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On 02-Dec-01 Bruce Evans wrote: > On Sat, 1 Dec 2001, John Baldwin wrote: > >> On 01-Dec-01 Dave wrote: >> > >> > I really have no clue what the kernel option: >> > options USER_LDT >> > >> > means, except this rugged definition I found in LINT (paraphrase): >> > "Allow applications running in user space to manipulate the Local >> > Descriptor Table (LDT)" >> > >> > Since it didn't come in the GENERIC (FBSD 4.4 REL), I'm assuming that >> > someone, somewhere, thought it would be a good idea to have this disabled >> > by default and maybe it was meant to be added in only by people who know >> > what they are doing. >> >> No, it's enabled by default, not disabled by default. > > Er, not in RELENG_4. It can only be enabled by default if it doesn't exist, > as in -current :-). Ah, nm, I misread it thinking that the option was gone from 4.4 completely. To answer the original question then: it's not enabled by default most likely because when it was added as a new feature it was left as an option that was off by default so that any bugs it might have wouldn't bite people he didn't need it. > Bruce -- John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message
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