nanog mailing list archives

Re: Linux: concerns over systemd adoption and Debian's decision to switch


From: Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 15:30:29 -0400

On Wed, 22 Oct 2014 13:13:29 -0600, John Schiel said:

i was beginning to wonder how secure systemd is also.

One of the 3 CIA pillars of security is "availability".  And if
it's oh-dark-30, figuring out what symlink is supposed to be where
for a given failed systemd unit can be a tad challenging.  At least under
sysvinit, either /etc/rc5.d/S50foobar is there or it isn't(*).

And if they carry through on their systemd-console threat, that could get
even worse - that introduces a whole new pile of risks for being unable
to diagnose early boot bugs

So yeah, there's security issues other than "can it be hacked because
it's got a huge surface area".

(*) Unless you're really having a bad night and it's a hard link to /dev/sda1
or something. :)

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