Re: [Tails-dev] disabling MAC spoofing by default in VM's [

25/11/13 21:15, intrigeri wrote:
> Hi,
>
> anonym wrote (25 Nov 2013 19:24:51 GMT) :
>> 21/11/13 09:17, intrigeri wrote:
>>> I'm concerned about the impact on our test suite: it seems suboptimal
>>> to (automatically) test code paths that are different from the ones
>>> most users will go through.
>
>> Even if we add a comprehensive cucumber feature that tests all scenarios
>> we think matter for both cases (i.e. enabled and disabled)?
>
> This would definitely be better.
>
> However... when we find ourselves in a position when we can base
> implementation decisions on "let's have more automated tests", then
> I'm happy, but I don't think it would be wise to act as if we were
> there yet.

Indeed. :)

>>> IIRC we're setting a kernel cmdline
>>> parameter when running the test suite, so perhaps this changing of
>>> defaults could be disabled when a testing environment is detected?
>
>> This would be both easy and appropriate, yes.
>
>> Another approach is to change the default only for known problematic VMs
>> (currently only VirtualBox), which is made easy since virt-what tells us
>> which VM it detects. We this we would *by default* spoof the MAC address
>> of Tails in the scenario where someone runs Tails in a e.g.
>> libvirt/qeumu with a bridged adapter on a hostile network (it's up to
>> the user to then also spoof the much more important *real* MAC address
>> of the host computer). A small gain, I suppose.
>
> I agree it's a small gain, compared to the simpler and more robust
> (not depending on what specific string virt-what outputs) "don't
> change the defaults when a testing environment is detected".

True. I implemented the simpler approach in commit 63769ad (Tails
Greeter's repo).

Cheers!