[8794] in bugtraq
Re: Why you should avoid world-writable directories
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kragen Sitaker)
Wed Dec 23 16:57:22 1998
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 16:50:19 -0500
Reply-To: Bugtraq List <BUGTRAQ@NETSPACE.ORG>
From: Kragen Sitaker <kragen@POBOX.COM>
To: BUGTRAQ@NETSPACE.ORG
In-Reply-To: <19981222105136.A9346@ironman.planetquake.com>
On Tue, 22 Dec 1998, Gonzo Granzeau wrote:
> As noted from previous sendmail issues, two of the stated problems can be
> solved by doing a correct disk structure. You cannot create hard links across
> across different partitions. That way, if you have a /, /usr, /tmp, and a
> /home, you should be okay if it drops it in tmp. You'd basically have to
> give their program it's own file system. This still doesn't change the fact
> that it is flawed, but if you are forced to use it...
As djb's recent email to bugtraq points out, this does not solve the
mail destruction problem; you can make a subdirectory in the spool
directory and put your hardlink in there. That subdirectory is
guaranteed to be on the same partition as the spool directory.
It *does* solve the mail-yourself-a-private-file problem, but I haven't
looked at the VMailer spool-file format enough to figure out whether
there's really a security problem (as djb claims) or not (as Wietse
claims).
--
<kragen@pobox.com> Kragen Sitaker <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
TurboLinux is outselling NT in Japan's retail software market 10 to 1,
so I hear.
-- http://www.performancecomputing.com/opinions/unixriot/981218.shtml
