Re: [PATCH 1/1] MAINTAINERS: introduce cve or security quotient field

[Daniel P . Berrangé]

On Tue, Jul 14, 2020 at 07:02:59AM -0400, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 14, 2020 at 11:22:28AM +0100, Peter Maydell wrote:
> > On Tue, 14 Jul 2020 at 11:12, Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com> wrote:
> > > And for people who want to build QEMU with lots of functionality (like
> > > Fedora does), I think a -security flag would be a useful addition.
> > > We can then tell security researchers "only a high security issue
> > > if it reproduces with -security=high, only a security issue
> > > if it reproduces with -security=low".
> > 
> > I think a -security option would also be useful to users -- it
> > makes it easier for them to check "is this configuration using
> > something that I didn't realize was not intended to be secure".
> > For me, something useful for our users is much more compelling
> > than "this might make security researchers' lives a bit easier".
> > 
> > thanks
> > -- PMM
> 
> True. And I guess downstreams can also force the option to high or set the
> default to high rather easily if they want to.
> 
> So the option would be:
> 
> -security level
>       Set minimal required security level of QEMU.
> 
>       high: block use of QEMU functionality which is intended to be secure 
> against
>               malicious guests.
>       low: allow use of all QEMU functionality, best effort security
>               against malicious guests.
> 
> Default would be -security low.
> 
> Does this look reasonable?

The challenge I see is that wiring up a runtime flag into every relevant
part of the QEMU codebase is an pretty large amount of work. Every device,
every machine type, every backend type, every generic subsystem will all
need checks for this flag. It is possible, but it isn't going to be quick
or easy, especially with poor error reporting support in many areas.

Regards,
Daniel
-- 
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