From owner-freebsd-security Sat Dec 1 17: 9:37 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org Received: from mail5.speakeasy.net (mail5.speakeasy.net [216.254.0.205]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9CA5737B416 for ; Sat, 1 Dec 2001 17:09:32 -0800 (PST) Received: (qmail 6682 invoked from network); 2 Dec 2001 01:09:31 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO laptop.baldwin.cx) ([64.81.54.73]) (envelope-sender ) by mail5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 2 Dec 2001 01:09:31 -0000 Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.4.0 on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20011202120451.R6917-100000@gamplex.bde.org> Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2001 17:09:28 -0800 (PST) From: John Baldwin To: Bruce Evans Subject: RE: options USER_LDT Cc: freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG, Dave Sender: owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org 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 <>< 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