Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:34:25 -0800
From:      Julian Elischer <julian@freebsd.org>
To:        Konstantin Belousov <kostikbel@gmail.com>
Cc:        Mikolaj Golub <trociny@freebsd.org>, svn-src-head@freebsd.org, svn-src-all@freebsd.org, src-committers@freebsd.org, Pawel Jakub Dawidek <pjd@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: svn commit: r232181 - in head/sys: kern sys
Message-ID:  <4F4C7571.7010407@freebsd.org>
In-Reply-To: <20120227092951.GB55074@deviant.kiev.zoral.com.ua>
References:  <201202261425.q1QEPm9g069102@svn.freebsd.org> <20120227082811.GC1363@garage.freebsd.pl> <864nucd5jc.fsf@in138.ua3> <20120227092951.GB55074@deviant.kiev.zoral.com.ua>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 2/27/12 1:29 AM, Konstantin Belousov wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 10:49:59AM +0200, Mikolaj Golub wrote:
>> On Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:28:11 +0100 Pawel Jakub Dawidek wrote:
>>
>>   PJD>  On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 02:25:48PM +0000, Mikolaj Golub wrote:
>>   >>  Author: trociny
>>   >>  Date: Sun Feb 26 14:25:48 2012
>>   >>  New Revision: 232181
>>   >>  URL: http://svn.freebsd.org/changeset/base/232181
>>   >>
>>   >>  Log:
>>   >>    Add sysctl to retrieve or set umask of another process.
>>
>>   PJD>  "set umask of another process"? This seems... weird. What's the purpose
>>   PJD>  of this change?
>>
>> When we were discussing this with Kostik and Robert, and I asked if it could
>> be useful to have the sysctl rw, Kostik described a real situation when he had
>> had to change umask of another process: umask had not been set properly on an
>> aplication start but it could not be restarted until the end of the day.
>> Kostik was able to fix it using gdb but having an easier way looked useful.
> kgdb, not gdb.
>
> It is indeed possible to write a ptrace-based utility that inject a code
> payload that would change umask. Since this is very risky but indeed possible,
> having the straighforward kernel facility is justified.
Why not have a sysctl to change a process'  uid, cwd, memory limits, 
etc. etc.

I don't think this belongs in the kernel by default. It's not exactl a 
call for backout but It's teh next thing short of that. a call for "do 
you REALLY think we need this particular specific case catered for?"

Julian
> Patch puts the same restrictions on the caller as ptrace().




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4F4C7571.7010407>