x86-64, modify_ldt: Make support for 16-bit segments a runtime option

Checkin:

b3b42ac2cbae x86-64, modify_ldt: Ban 16-bit segments on 64-bit kernels

disabled 16-bit segments on 64-bit kernels due to an information
leak.  However, it does seem that people are genuinely using Wine to
run old 16-bit Windows programs on Linux.

A proper fix for this ("espfix64") is coming in the upcoming merge
window, but as a temporary fix, create a sysctl to allow the
administrator to re-enable support for 16-bit segments.

It adds a "/proc/sys/abi/ldt16" sysctl that defaults to zero (off). If
you hit this issue and care about your old Windows program more than
you care about a kernel stack address information leak, you can do

   echo 1 > /proc/sys/abi/ldt16

as root (add it to your startup scripts), and you should be ok.

The sysctl table is only added if you have COMPAT support enabled on
x86-64, but I assume anybody who runs old windows binaries very much
does that ;)

Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@linux.intel.com>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/CA%2B55aFw9BPoD10U1LfHbOMpHWZkvJTkMcfCs9s3urPr1YyWBxw@mail.gmail.com
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>

0 files changed, 0 insertions, 0 deletions