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Date:      Fri, 30 Jul 1999 16:00:16 -0400
From:      "David E. Cross" <crossd@cs.rpi.edu>
To:        "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com>
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, crossd@cs.rpi.edu
Subject:   Re: So, back on the topic of enabling bpf in GENERIC... 
Message-ID:  <199907302000.QAA30574@cs.rpi.edu>
In-Reply-To: Message from "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com>  of "Fri, 30 Jul 1999 12:46:19 PDT." <8442.933363979@zippy.cdrom.com> 

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Here is a pro vote for enabling BPF in GENERIC:

It will let us use a dhcp client in the install programs, this is of tremendous
use to many people as DHCP starts to become much more popular.  I cannot
net install a machine at home since that is on a DHCP cable modem service.

Also, if root is compromised on a system, even if you don't have bpf installed
you would be a fool to believe that they are not sniffing packets/passwords.
At the very least Mr. Pragmatic(sp?) has shown the world the power and 
flexability of KLDs... I am sure someone could write a KLD to impliment the
functionality of a packet sniffer.  Also  an attacker, once obtaining root,
could certainly trojan ftpd/sshd/telnetd/login/whatever.  I think disabling
bpf for "security reasons" is a false sense of security.

--
David Cross                               | email: crossd@cs.rpi.edu 
Systems Administrator/Research Programmer | Web: http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~crossd 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,         | Ph: 518.276.2860            
Department of Computer Science            | Fax: 518.276.4033
I speak only for myself.                  | WinNT:Linux::Linux:FreeBSD


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