🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <62524@cup.portal.com> VESOFT@cup.portal.com (Michael D Hensley) writes:
>COPS doesn't seem to report ALL root-owned world-writable files.
>
>Agree/disagree/discussion: Any root-owned world-writable file should be
>considered a potential security loophole.

There is a good argument for both sides:

Disagree - It is only a security hole if it is a program that somebody
(root or otherwise) will run or if it contains data that you trust for
system security.  If I make /tmp/junk in single user mode and then
leave it there world writeable, it is only a hole if it is also readable
and contains data you don't want to get out.

Agree - _Any_ world writeable file is a de-facto security hole because
any random user can change it.  For example, /users/fred/.login is
a security hole if it is world writeable.  /users/fred/phone_numbers
is also a form of security hole, since by writing to it, I could
probably cause Fred to make telephone calls to the wrong people.

btw.. beware of things that are supposed to be world writeable: e.g.
on many machines, /usr/dict/spellhist is world writeable.  (It collects
lists of words that people spell wrong.  It has no special security
because you don't really _care_ if it gets trashed.  All it is good for
is identifying words that _might_ belong in the dictionary.  This in itself
could be a security hole, if you have people spell-checking documents
that contain sensitive information.)