Re: 2.6.8 kernel and XCDRoast

[Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>]

On Sat, Sep 04, 2004 at 07:26:05PM -0500, Steve Reindl wrote:
> If you are fond of XCDRoast, as I am, do not upgrade to the 2.6.8 
> kernel. It breaks XCDR and the page suggests you try scsi-emulation to 
> fix it.

Or just run it as root.  Or even just make cdrecord setuid.

Or you could wait for an upstream fix.  The problem is in the app, not
the kernel.

  http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=109397263504874&w=2

The problem boils down to this:  In the past, user-space apps running
on a 2.6.x kernel could send random SCSI commands to any drive they
could *read* from.  That includes commands for, say, overwriting the
firmware.  Bad stuff.

In 2.6.8, this problem is fixed by "filtering" the commands that can
be sent.  As usual, root can pretty much do anything.  Everyone else
is limited to a set of "safe for reading" and "safe for writing"
commands.  If you only open the device for reading, you can't send the
command to burn a CD (for example).  The simple fix is the obvious
one...  The app (cdrecord in this case, most likely) needs to open the
device read-write.  It's probably a one-line fix.

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Southern Illinois Linux Users Group
(618)398-7360             | See web site for meeting details.
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.silug.org/

-
To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@silug.org with
"unsubscribe silug-discuss" in the body.