[877] in bugtraq
Re: MAGIC PIDs (was Re: magic??)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Pete Shipley)
Thu Feb 2 09:28:40 1995
To: bugtraq@fc.net
In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu, 02 Feb 1995 00:01:37 +0000.
<199502020001.AAA22347@bagpuss.demon.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 1995 03:28:23 -0800
From: Pete Shipley <shipley@merde.dis.org>
>>
>> the other day, i happened to join a conversation about Unix security with
>> a couple of fellows at a local bookstore. one of them mentioned the "magic"
>> hole. i have heard mention of this hole before, but i assumed the hole
>> no longer existed. apparently, this was a hole in /bin/login.
>
>This is probably associated with the MAGIC PID SUBSYSTEM which has
>been implemented on a number of popular UNIX's. Basically processes
>that acquire a MAGIC PID have special powers and can do 'magical' things.
>
>If a hole is found in a program (such as /bin/login) which is executing
>in a process with a MAGIC PID, it is said to have a 'magic hole'.
>
>LINUX is generally recognised as having the most complete MAGIC PID
>implementation. The benefits of MAGIC PIDs was discussed widely on IRC's
>#unix and #root about 12 months ago. For more info, I guess you could
>try the usenet LINUX or security groups.
gee like what magical things? please more detail..
-Pete
