Re: Unix Security for Unix Gurus

At 9/27/2000 05:30 PM -0800, you wrote:

>My question is how does setting the current directory pose a security threat?

It poses a threat because someone could create an executable that wiped the disk, name it to match a utility such as ls leave it in a bunch of working directories, and then when some superuser comes along with "." as the first directory in his path, he may issue an ls command to list files and instead invoke the bad program, which then wipes the disk.

Maybe ls is a bad command to use as an example, but I think you get the idea.

Jonathhan

Jonathan Gennick
jonathan_at_gennick.com
Brighten the corner where you are Received on Thu Sep 28 2000 - 08:06:18 CDT