Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 3 Apr 2006 23:10:39 +0100 (BST)
From:      Robert Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.org>
To:        "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@postgresql.org>
Cc:        Daniel Eischen <deischen@freebsd.org>, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Andrew Thompson <thompsa@freebsd.org>, Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org>
Subject:   Re: [HACKERS] semaphore usage "port based"?
Message-ID:  <20060403230850.P76562@fledge.watson.org>
In-Reply-To: <20060403144916.J947@ganymede.hub.org>
References:  <Pine.GSO.4.43.0604030817090.21105-100000@sea.ntplx.net> <20060403140902.C947@ganymede.hub.org> <20060403182504.S76562@fledge.watson.org> <20060403144916.J947@ganymede.hub.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

On Mon, 3 Apr 2006, Marc G. Fournier wrote:

>> The problem here is actually that two postgres instances are trying to use 
>> the same sempahore when they are actually different postgres instances.
>
> No, the problem here is that kill(PID, 0) reports that a PID is 'not in use' 
> when, in fact, it is, but in a different jail ... can someone explain to me 
> how 'not hiding that fact' increases information leakage, or causes a 
> security problem?  I could see it if I could then proceed to kill that 
> process from a seperate jail, but I don't see what as possible ...

So if it's using a different semaphore, why is it finding the semaphore of 
another Postgres session and trying to use that?  The problem you're 
describing is a property of a collision on a semaphore.  If there's no 
semaphore collision, how would it ever find the pid from another jail?

Robert N M Watson



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20060403230850.P76562>