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Date:      Tue, 28 Oct 1997 04:08:00 +0000 (GMT)
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>
To:        Don.Lewis@tsc.tdk.com (Don Lewis)
Cc:        tlambert@primenet.com, Don.Lewis@tsc.tdk.com, jamil@trojanhorse.ml.org, thorpej@nas.nasa.gov, joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Possible SERIOUS bug in open()? (Big time bug)
Message-ID:  <199710280408.VAA05972@usr08.primenet.com>
In-Reply-To: <199710280017.QAA23766@salsa.gv.tsc.tdk.com> from "Don Lewis" at Oct 27, 97 04:17:32 pm

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> } You need to be able to open something with just "x" access to map
> } it so that a proces you own can "run" it.  So you also want to
> } allow an open if you have execute access.
> 
> I don't think administrators who remove "r" access to keep users
> from copying executables would like this, since the users could
> just switch to a copying program that uses mmap.

A user can just ctrl-\ the thing and get a core and "undump" it now.

If it's a net program, they can just download it.


> I think it would be better to add a kernel hook so that the emulator
> could be registered as an interpreter for foreign binaries.  The
> kernel could then open an fd and pass it to the emulator when the
> binary is execed.  Something similar would allow you to remove the
> "r" permissions from shell scripts.

This route leads to chaos.  Consider a foreign binary which is suid;
you would end up with the same issues that you would get if SUID shell
scripts worked (in effect, an emulator that worked this way would be
a "different kind of shell interpreter with the foreigh binary instead
of '#!' as the 'magic number'" -- this would be bad).


> } Does having only execute access keep you from reading a file?
> } 
> } No.  You can make it core.
> 
> But that doesn't get you a copy of the text segment.  You can probably
> play games with debuggers as well.
> 
> In some environments it might not be acceptable to get even this much
> access, so it might make sense to allow the administrator to disable
> core file generation and the ability to attach a debugger if you don't
> have "r" access.

Well, that's the next logical paranoid step, of course... ;-).


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.



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