Article View: comp.bugs.sys5
Article #1042zero length /etc/passwd (was Re: ulimit)
From: Bill Carpenter
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 1989 09:00
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 1989 09:00
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1609 bytes
In article <100455@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> plocher%sally@Sun.COM (John Plocher) writes: > Kids, don't do this at home. >[shows bug that truncates /etc/passwd] > % ls -l /etc/passwd* > -rw-r--r-- 1 root 0 Apr 3 10:44 /etc/passwd > -rw-r--r-- 1 root 439 Apr 3 10:40 /etc/passwd.old > % su > password: xxxxxxx > # cp /etc/passwd.old /etc/passwd No, kidding, "don't do this"!! I was once the last user on a machine and discovered that some clever daemon had truncated /etc/passwd. I thought I'd do just this sort of thing. Hmmm, just how did I expect "su" to verify that I had typed the right passwd? At least under SysV, this was big trouble. Would BSD or SunOS have behaved differently? "Sorry" (meaning, "grab that backup disk of the root file system"). (I tried being root on machines networked to the damaged one; none let me get in and most asked personal questions like "Who are you?") -- -- Bill Carpenter att!ho5cad!wjc or attmail!bill
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arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!cbnewsh!ho5cad!wjcReferences:
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!cbnewsh!ho5cad!wjc From: wjc@ho5cad.ATT.COM (Bill Carpenter) Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5 Subject: zero length /etc/passwd (was Re: ulimit) Message-ID: <WJC.89Apr22100003@ho5cad.ho5cad.ATT.COM> Date: 22 Apr 89 09:00:03 GMT References: <19516@genrad.UUCP> <1319@nusdhub.UUCP> <10075@smoke.BRL.MIL> <881@cetia4.UUCP> <100455@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Sender: nntp@cbnewsh.ATT.COM Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 22 In-reply-to: plocher%sally@Sun.COM's message of 21 Apr 89 20:44:34 GMT