[patches] Add dmi kernel class support into HAL

[Lennart Poettering]

On Tue, 05.06.07 17:49, Richard Hughes (hughsient at gmail.com) wrote:

> > That's the point; _I_ don't think it should be hidden from users nor
> > from programs that wants to key off system-specific data. Others,
> > however, think it should be hidden. And to that I ask: why don't we
> > hide disk, usb, firewire etc. serial numbers? And the answer is: it's
> > bloody useful information; just look at the /dev/disk/* tree for
> > example.
> 
> I have to agree, if the data was hidden from me, I would just turn the
> laptop over and read the serial number myself.

Those fields in the kernel are not protected to hide them from the
human owner of the laptop. They are protected from non-root
Unix-users. That's a big difference. If in HAl you make the decision
to make these fields available for everyone that's OK. I just think
that one has to go a more conservative way in the kernel then one has
to go in HAL. Why? The kernel runs on all Linux installations, HAL
(currently) only on desktops/laptops where security is usually not
such highly valued. 

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering                        Red Hat, Inc.
lennart [at] poettering [dot] net         ICQ# 11060553
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