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Article #1505Re: Beware xargs security holes
From: Dan Bernstein
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 1990 17:00
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 1990 17:00
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In article <3876@awdprime.UUCP> tif@doorstop.austin.ibm.com (Paul Chamberlain) writes: > In article <4062:Oct1518:22:1290@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes: > > find / -name '#*' -atime +7 -print | xargs rm > >lets a malicious user remove every file on the system. > If I understand, to do this a user would have to create a file > with a '/' in its name. Incorrect. find prints full pathnames, not just filenames. > The most malicious thing I can do with the above command is > remove a file that doesn't start with '#' that's in a > writable directory. Incorrect. If that command is run daily from cron, as it is on many systems, then any user can remove any file on the system. ---Dan
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!kramden.acf.nyu.edu!brnstnd From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell Subject: Re: Beware xargs security holes Message-ID: <13569:Oct1617:00:0590@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> Date: 16 Oct 90 17:00:05 GMT References: <271653D6.1CE8@tct.uucp> <4062:Oct1518:22:1290@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <3876@awdprime.UUCP> Organization: IR Lines: 17