I think it is. It is the kernel's job to protect itself from user-space mischief. It always has been. For example why are processes isolated from each other? Why does it guard against invalid memory/resource accesses etc? The kernel should be able to protect itself from denial of service attacks and must remain functional at all costs. A fork bomb is equally bad it is no excuse for the current failure mode.
BTW Linus agrees rate limiting is desirable here. This is the reason why I said systemd has to hold off its fire hose until the kernel can take care of it.
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I think it is. It is the kernel's job to protect itself from user-space mischief. It always has been. For example why are processes isolated from each other? Why does it guard against invalid memory/resource accesses etc? The kernel should be able to protect itself from denial of service attacks and must remain functional at all costs. A fork bomb is equally bad it is no excuse for the current failure mode.
BTW Linus agrees rate limiting is desirable here. This is the reason why I said systemd has to hold off its fire hose until the kernel can take care of it.