Matthew Garrett [off-list ref] wrote:

+		/* Ban synthetic events from some sysrq functionality */
+		if ((from == SYSRQ_FROM_PROC || from == SYSRQ_FROM_SYNTHETIC) &&
+		    op_p->enable_mask & SYSRQ_DISABLE_USERSPACE)
+			printk("This sysrq operation is disabled from userspace.\n");
 		/*
 		 * Should we check for enabled operations (/proc/sysrq-trigger
 		 * should not) and is the invoked operation enabled?
 		 */
-		if (!check_mask || sysrq_on_mask(op_p->enable_mask)) {
+		if (from == SYSRQ_FROM_KERNEL || sysrq_on_mask(op_p->enable_mask)) {

There's some missing logic here.  Probably an else is missing, but it seems
more than that.

David