[835] in linux-security and linux-alert archive
Re: [linux-security] sudo limiting
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (shaggenbunsenburner)
Fri Jun 21 12:12:09 1996
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 10:37:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: shaggenbunsenburner <shagboy@thecia.net>
Reply-To: shagboy@thecia.net
To: Felix von Leitner <leitner@prz.tu-berlin.de>
cc: Blue <blue@buttercup.cybernex.net>, linux-security@tarsier.cv.nrao.edu
In-Reply-To: <199606210025.CAA25373@tubkom.prz.tu-berlin.de>
On Fri, 21 Jun 1996, Felix von Leitner wrote:
> > I'd say hack /bin/passwd. It's been setuid for ages and I'd say it's
> > considered pretty secure.
>
> Really? Du you remember the race condition problem because passwd
> creates a file in /tmp?
Well, I should have known that as soon as I said "considered secure"
someone would prove me wrong :) With a few black marks, however,
/bin/passwd has been a safe program to use to change passwords. And I'd
vouchsafe that even with no changes it's safer than something written
from scratch, if only because it's been around longer.
It's really a fairly minor change to implement anyway (making a
passwd-sudo or similar) in the source; all you do is do an extra check to
make sure no one's changing the passwd for "root" (or bin, daemon, et
al). Maybe just disallow changes to any UID under 100 or something?
Slackware's default "adduser" starts adding users at 500, maybe that
could be the lower limit?
shag
Judd Bourgeois | When we are planning for posterity,
shagboy@thecia.net | we ought to remember that virtue is
Finger for PGP key | not hereditary. Thomas Paine
