[PATCH v2 0/3] initramfs: add support for xattrs in the initial ram disk

[Rob Landley]

On 5/12/19 7:52 AM, Mimi Zohar wrote:
> On Sun, 2019-05-12 at 11:17 +0200, Dominik Brodowski wrote:
>> On Thu, May 09, 2019 at 01:24:17PM +0200, Roberto Sassu wrote:
>>> This proposal consists in marshaling pathnames and xattrs in a file called
>>> .xattr-list. They are unmarshaled by the CPIO parser after all files have
>>> been extracted.
>>
>> Couldn't this parsing of the .xattr-list file and the setting of the xattrs
>> be done equivalently by the initramfs' /init? Why is kernel involvement
>> actually required here?
> 
> It's too late.  The /init itself should be signed and verified.

If the initramfs cpio.gz image was signed and verified by the extractor, how is
the init in it _not_ verified?

Rob