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Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 18:29:52 -0800 (PST)
From: "f. johan beisser" <jan@caustic.org>
To: freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org
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Subject: conf/34780: locate(1)'s database is generated with root permissions
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>Number:         34780
>Category:       conf
>Synopsis:       locate(1)'s database is generated with root permissions
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Sat Feb 09 18:30:01 PST 2002
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     f. johan beisser
>Release:        -CURRENT. problem also exists in -STABLE.
>Organization:
>Environment:
>Description:
      the locate(1) database is generated with root permissions. this allows any user to find the existance of any other users files through the locate(1) command. this means doing a search for any users login, you can get a list of all of the files in their home direcotry, no matter what permissions the file has.

technically, this is a privacy violation by periodic(8). locate.mklocatedb creates the /var/db/locate.database as whoever the invoking user happens to be. since 310.locate (/etc/periodic/weekly/310.locate) is called by root, it doesn't pay any attention to user set permissions while generating the database.
>How-To-Repeat:
      it's repeated every week by periodic(8).
>Fix:
      stop generating the locate database as the root user.

the other option is to set up locate(1) a bit more securely via adjusting the locate.rc (/etc/locate.rc) or by excluding user home directories (/usr/home) automagically.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:

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