From owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 4 15:58:21 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D7BF516A4CE for ; Fri, 4 Jun 2004 15:58:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: from tx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk (tx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk [163.1.2.163]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 926D343D4C for ; Fri, 4 Jun 2004 15:58:21 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk) Received: from scan2.oucs.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.2.162] helo=localhost) by tx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1BWNdL-0008LM-JV for freebsd-security@freebsd.org; Fri, 04 Jun 2004 23:57:55 +0100 Received: from rx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.2.161]) by localhost (scan2.oucs.ox.ac.uk [163.1.2.162]) (amavisd-new, port 25) with ESMTP id 31864-02 for ; Fri, 4 Jun 2004 23:57:54 +0100 (BST) Received: from gateway.wadham.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.161.253]) by rx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 4.24) id 1BWNdK-0008LJ-9L for freebsd-security@freebsd.org; Fri, 04 Jun 2004 23:57:54 +0100 Received: (qmail 31702 invoked by uid 1004); 4 Jun 2004 22:57:54 -0000 Received: from colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk by gateway by uid 71 with qmail-scanner-1.20 (clamscan: 0.67. sweep: 2.18/3.79. Clear:RC:1(163.1.161.131):. Processed in 0.328387 secs); 04 Jun 2004 22:57:54 -0000 Received: from dhcp1131.wadham.ox.ac.uk (HELO piii600.wadham.ox.ac.uk) (163.1.161.131) by gateway.wadham.ox.ac.uk with SMTP; 4 Jun 2004 22:57:54 -0000 Message-Id: <6.1.0.6.1.20040604235214.03fec120@popserver.sfu.ca> X-Sender: cperciva@popserver.sfu.ca (Unverified) X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.1.0.6 Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2004 23:57:51 +0100 To: "Crist J. Clark" From: Colin Percival In-Reply-To: <20040604195338.GA50275@blossom.cjclark.org> References: <20040604195338.GA50275@blossom.cjclark.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" cc: freebsd-security@freebsd.org Subject: Re: syslogd(8) Dropping Privs X-BeenThere: freebsd-security@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Security issues [members-only posting] List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2004 22:58:22 -0000 At 20:53 04/06/2004, Crist J. Clark wrote: >We haven't had many syslogd(8) vulnerabilities lately, but one >less daemon running as root seems like a Good Thing. I do not >see any drawbacks from a security point of view. The log files >would have to be owned, or otherwise writeable, by this other >user, but so what. Obviously, I may be missing something. One consideration is that if syslogd is not running as root, it will no longer be able to write to a filesystem which is already "full". On systems where non-root users can write to the filesystem containing /var/log (and are not limited by quotas) this would allow non-root users to disable logging, which would probably be a Bad Thing. Colin Percival