Linux 6.1 Default Kernel Config To Warn At Boot Of W+X Mappings

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 6.1 Default Kernel Config To Warn At Boot Of W+X Mappings

A change queued up as part of the "x86/mm" TIP changes expected to land for Linux 6.1 will now have the default kernel configuration warn at kernel boot time around any W+X mappings that pose a security risk...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.1-Warn-WX-Defconfig

[some_canuck]

I've had this enabled on my kernels for a while now, but I don't think I've seen a system where it's said that there were any WX pages...

[willmore]

Maybe it's a Fedora policy, but I've been seeing these for many years. Are there distros which didn't enable it? Seems a poor choice.

[mazumoto]

Now ... who reads all those messages on bootup on most computers? I guess nobody. Since they disabled Shift-PgUp for scrolling not even me
This seems pretty irrelevant to me. A well-made notification system or analyzation gui for misconfigurations and problems in a destop environment would be way more interesting to me.

[karolherbst]

Now ... who reads all those messages on bootup on most computers? I guess nobody. Since they disabled Shift-PgUp for scrolling not even me
This seems pretty irrelevant to me. A well-made notification system or analyzation gui for misconfigurations and problems in a destop environment would be way more interesting to me.

there is always dmesg. Also Linux kernel developers are catching such warnings occasionally.

[Amaranth]

Now ... who reads all those messages on bootup on most computers? I guess nobody. Since they disabled Shift-PgUp for scrolling not even me
This seems pretty irrelevant to me. A well-made notification system or analyzation gui for misconfigurations and problems in a destop environment would be way more interesting to me.

With this enabled someone can make a UI that checks for it in dmesg and alerts you, although there is likely nothing you can do to "fix" it so maybe not.

[willmore]

Now ... who reads all those messages on bootup on most computers? I guess nobody. Since they disabled Shift-PgUp for scrolling not even me
This seems pretty irrelevant to me. A well-made notification system or analyzation gui for misconfigurations and problems in a destop environment would be way more interesting to me.

Maybe I'm just too long of a Linux user, but my first reflex when looking into problems (or after hardware changes) is to page through dmesg output. After three decades, you get pretty good sorthing through it visually. Although, I do have to google a few things from time to time. I still would like to know more about Yama becoming mindful.

[mazumoto]

there is always dmesg. Also Linux kernel developers are catching such warnings occasionally.

Yep, but dmesg actually doesn't have the same output as what is printed at bootup. But of course that is irrelevant for the warning described in the article (it'll appear in dmesg).
Yet I don't check dmesg regularly (is this something a regular Linux user should do?) and interested developers could switch it on easily (they do all compile their own kernels, don't they? /s). So it still seems rather useless to me ... but it won't hurt either of course :-)
I'd find an article about a GUI that notifies the user like Amaranth suggests much more interesting. Of course nobody will ever create a GUI on Linux that reports this (which is part of why it'd be interesting ).

[willmore]

Yep, but dmesg actually doesn't have the same output as what is printed at bootup. But of course that is irrelevant for the warning described in the article (it'll appear in dmesg).
Yet I don't check dmesg regularly (is this something a regular Linux user should do?) and interested developers could switch it on easily (they do all compile their own kernels, don't they? /s). So it still seems rather useless to me ... but it won't hurt either of course :-)
I'd find an article about a GUI that notifies the user like Amaranth suggests much more interesting. Of course nobody will ever create a GUI on Linux that reports this (which is part of why it'd be interesting ).

I have dmesg -w running in a terminal all the time. When I login to a remote machine the first things I do are start screen. Make a screen for 'vmstat 5', one for 'dmesg -w' and a third to actually use as a command line. I've been doing it that was for decades.