. in $path

[Claude.P.Cantin at NRC.CA]

We recently received a few SGI machines (a PI 4D25G, a 4D/240 and a
4D/280 Power Series).  One of the first things I have noticed is that
when running a program in the current directory, one has to type

  ./program

I then looked in the /.cshrc file and found the following:

  #The absence of '.' in this path is quite necessary.
  #It closes an otherwise bad security breach.

Can someone explain to me WHICH security breach it closes???  What could
(potentially) happen if I add the '.' at the beginning of the path???

Did most of you leave it the way it is??? Or did you add it to your path??


Thank you for your replies,

      Claude Cantin (CANTIN at NRCVM01.BITNET)