Conversation
gregkh

Greg K-H

Another post in my series about the kernel CVE process, all about how we classify fixes to be assigned a CVE and other related things:

http://www.kroah.com/log/blog/2026/02/16/linux-cve-assignment-process/
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joshbressers@infosec.exchange

Josh Bressers

Reply to @gregkh

@gregkh I like this post, I do have two questions that are related

You say "ALWAYS properly walk the git repository tree to determine range checks", don't versions also line up with the tree? Or am I missing something

And the second question is why even include the CPE data? The data you're supplying isn't usable (as much as CPE can be usable)

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gregkh

Greg K-H

Reply to @joshbressers@infosec.exchange
@joshbressers The version question/range is a good one, it requires a solid and long description of the problem and why it's required, with real examples. A response here isn't going to be sufficient, I'll work on that as the "next" post in this series.

For "why we we provide CPE", we provide it because some groups were "adding" CPE data that was flat out wrong because our records did not have any values. By providing the "real" CPE description, according to their specification, that mostly prevents that from happening.

CPE on its own, doesn't actually give you enough information to properly determine a "am I vulnerable" question giving a release that someone is currently on, as you well know. I guess it's good enough to search on "linux*" to filter that way :)

Hopefully PURL will help out a lot here, I have hope...
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T_X@chaos.social

T_X

Reply to @gregkh
Edited yesterday

@gregkh "always run fsck on any untrusted filesystem image before mounting it" - is that recommendation sufficient? A sophisticated USB storage device could also alter its content after an fsck, couldn't it?
Which also reminds me of the neat hack @awlnx did with her BMW: https://social.ffmuc.net/@awlnx/111709711390403407

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T_X@chaos.social

T_X

Reply to @gregkh

@gregkh also not really informed about the whole CVE process, but as a layman "Data loss/Data corruption/Filesystem corruption", wouldn't these "[cause] a negative impact to [...] integrity, or availability" as written in the quoted CVE definition?

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gregkh

Greg K-H

Reply to @T_X@chaos.social
@T_X @awlnx "sophisticated USB storage devices " can do loads of horrible things to your system. Linux (and all other operating systems) trust the hardware not to do dumb/bad/foolish things like that. If you don't trust the hardware, don't plug it in. That's what USBGuard is for, a protection for you to make the decision to trust the device or not, that's not something that the kernel can decide for you.
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gregkh

Greg K-H

Reply to @T_X@chaos.social
@T_X according to cve.org, nope, sorry. Take it up with them if you don't agree, I don't write the rules here (hint, I think backups should have been involved somewhere...)
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