Re: [RFC] Boot parameters and geometrical stability

[Robert Millan]

On Wed, Sep 03, 2008 at 11:50:33AM +0200, phcoder wrote:
> Hello, all.
> Now when core image can be booted by multiple sources perhaps it would
> be a good idea to recieve some boot arguments in case boot method (e.g.
> multiboot) supports it. Probably the best way is to recieve pairs
> <name,value> which can be easily imported to environment.

I assume you talk about GRUB loading itself;  what kind of information would
you pass from one GRUB to the other?

> Another
> possibility of improving boot process is to detect the prefix even if
> partition map changed it can be done e.g. with UUID

We use UUIDs already, but only when drives can't be referred to unambigously,
check how grub-install does it.

> but this comprises a
> security risk in case an attacker can plug a device (cdrom, floppy,
> USB-memory,..) containing a partition with the same UUID. What do you
> think about it

I think people who want this level of security (i.e. local media is not
trusted) should use crypto checksums to verify they're loading what they
expected, with or without UUIDs.

-- 
Robert Millan

  The DRM opt-in fallacy: "Your data belongs to us. We will decide when (and
  how) you may access your data; but nobody's threatening your freedom: we
  still allow you to remove your data and not access it at all."