Linux Still Working To Disable RNDIS Drivers In 2024

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux Still Working To Disable RNDIS Drivers In 2024

Back in January 2023 was an attempt to disable kernel drivers for Microsoft's RNDIS protocol. The Remote Network Driver Interface Specification (RNDIS) is home to security concerns for this protocol built atop USB for virtual Ethernet functionality. Later in the year the effort to disable RNDIS on Linux was tried again without going mainline. In recent days it looks like there will be a fresh attempt at getting the RNDIS driver support disabled...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Disabling-RNDIS-Attempt

[Danny3]

Again with this imbecile imbecile idea of removing these drivers?
Have the kernel developers completely lost their mind and not understand the simple fact that we need to be able to use USB tethering???
Is really that hard for them to understand tha many laptops now come without a Ethernet port and to make matter worse, they have a Realtek 6 or 7 Wifi chip which of course doesn't work by default on distros like Debian and other LTS distros and to be able to use the internet, even for a while like, upgrading the Linux kernel, installing the Realtek firmware, you still have to have internet somehow, that works without Wifi and USB tethering is the best for that?
I wonder now how many distros are now just going to disable these drivers and yeah, the kernel developers know better and fuck the users, they are stupid and should not use laptops wihtout an ethernet port or that it has a new Realtek wifi chip!

[Brittle2]

Again with this imbecile imbecile idea of removing these drivers?
Have the kernel developers completely lost their mind and not understand the simple fact that we need to be able to use USB tethering???
Is really that hard for them to understand tha many laptops now come without a Ethernet port and to make matter worse, they have a Realtek 6 or 7 Wifi chip which of course doesn't work by default on distros like Debian and other LTS distros and to be able to use the internet, even for a while like, upgrading the Linux kernel, installing the Realtek firmware, you still have to have internet somehow, that works without Wifi and USB tethering is the best for that?
I wonder now how many distros are now just going to disable these drivers and yeah, the kernel developers know better and fuck the users, they are stupid and should not use laptops wihtout an ethernet port or that it has a new Realtek wifi chip!

imagine ranting about something that don't have anything todo with the changes lmao

[Smurphy]

Again with this imbecile imbecile idea of removing these drivers?
Have the kernel developers completely lost their mind and not understand the simple fact that we need to be able to use USB tethering???
Is really that hard for them to understand tha many laptops now come without a Ethernet port and to make matter worse, they have a Realtek 6 or 7 Wifi chip which of course doesn't work by default on distros like Debian and other LTS distros and to be able to use the internet, even for a while like, upgrading the Linux kernel, installing the Realtek firmware, you still have to have internet somehow, that works without Wifi and USB tethering is the best for that?
I wonder now how many distros are now just going to disable these drivers and yeah, the kernel developers know better and fuck the users, they are stupid and should not use laptops wihtout an ethernet port or that it has a new Realtek wifi chip!

I am totally in favor to remove anything coming from Microsoft by default anyway.
And that driver is indeed a PITA, so happy for the next attempt.

Danny3 If you want, remove Linux and use Windows, this way you'll be full under the control of them.
The alternative is of course that you propose an alternative prototype based on something secure.

[anarki2]

I am totally in favor to remove anything coming from Microsoft by default anyway.

And that's why you're nothing more than an ignorant hater, by definition.

[RZSN]

Can somebody explain what is insecure in RNDIS, compared to a random USB ethernet card, that has a proprietary driver (not CDC-ECM) even some with binary blobs??

A properly configured OS would not care about any hotplugged NIC, as the default shall be always "if down, no IP assigned".

[ahrs]

I am totally in favor to remove anything coming from Microsoft by default anyway..

I'd be in favour of marking it as deprecated and perhaps disabling it by default unless a CONFIG_RNDIS_DEPRECATED is set but removing it outright is pretty extreme in my opinion. I respect the Linux maintainers decision but this is pretty much the only way to use tethering on some older Android devices. Tethering smartphones is a broken mess on Linux anyway and I don't use it but I know this will affect some people.

[bezirg]

Is this actually going to break USB tethering? I guess that people rely on usb to tether with their phones.

My dumbphone does not even have wifi or bluetooth tethering, so usb tethering is the only option for me.

And I am in favor of having it behind a disabled-by-default CONFIG flag, than completely removing this.

[ahrs]

Is this actually going to break USB tethering?

Yes, it will. To quote the Gentoo Wiki:

RNDIS linux module is being deprecated and will be removed from the Linux Kernel in favor Network Control Model (NCM), but it is used by majority of devices nowadays (2023) and up to now the only way to configure working USB tethering for old Android devices.[1] For more recent devices (Android 14 era) try to use "Network Control Model (NCM) support" module first.

So have a device older than two years old? Eff you.

[bezirg]

I understand that the RNDIS protocol is insecure, but removing it is extreme.

In another case of kernel-code removal, Itanium got axed because almost nobody was running Itanium afterall.

In this case there are actually many people using USB tethering via RNDIS; and these people are running very recent hardware.