Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Samsung intentionally created new kernel-userspace interface to bypass normal kernel security mechanisms and give userspace direct access to RAM and IO registers, allowing them to put low-level device drivers in userspace. I'm pretty sure that somebody writing a Windows driver for this hardware could use the same "architecture" as well.

However, Windows is less likely to see such hacks because they are usually created to avoid dealing with kernel's GPL.




Userspace is really not the issue here at all. The problem is that the device was given full access permissions to every role on the system, when it should have been (trivially) limited to only system services. All of Android is userspace and relies on the kernel's userspace protection system (standard unix permissions) for security.

It's just a major mistake on Samsung's side that could have been avoided with 5 seconds of thought by the engineer.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: