[pptp-server] pptpd questions/info newbie...

[Charlie Brady]

Hi Steve,

On Sun, 7 Oct 2001, Steve Langasek wrote:

> On Sun, 7 Oct 2001, Dean A. Roman wrote:
>
> > Any luck finding those patches for ppp w/ mppe for woody you were going to
> > send?
>
> I'm not the original poster, but I've just yesterday finished patching the
> Debian/woody ppp package to include mppe support (no smb-stripdomain yet).  I
> can make this package available for download, but I'd first like to check w/
> Michael Beattie about getting it included in the next official package
> release.  Does anyone know of reasons why this mppe patch should not be
> included in the upstream releases as well (e.g., crypto laws or patent
> concerns)?

I know that Paul Mackerras was concerned about crypto laws, but things
have changed (who knows for how long).

Before we get the patches more widely distributed, I'd like to change the
mppe-modified pppd to kernel interface so that the modified pppd will work
with a standard ppp.o module. It doesn't at the moment because an oversize
parameter block is used to pass encryption keys into the kernel for the
mppe module to use. This is done via the ioctl handler of the ppp module.

My idea is to change the interface so that only a pointer is passed, which
will fit within the standard limit of 32 bytes. The mppe module would then
upload the keys using copy from user to kernel space. We would then
distribute the mppe modified pppd along with the mppe module, but use the
standard ppp module.

Care to help me develop and test this change, Steve?

Charlie Brady                         charlieb at e-smith.com
Lead Product Developer
Network Server Solutions Group        http://www.e-smith.com/
Mitel Networks Corporation            http://www.mitel.com/
Phone: +1 (613) 368 4376 or 564 8000  Fax: +1 (613) 564 7739