Messages to the console

Jesse R. Buckley Jr. sct60a.sunyct.edu!buck at sct60a.sunyct.edu
Thu Nov 29 14:14:41 AEST 1990


On Nov 27, 16:10, David Elliott wrote:
} [EDITED]
} Even assuming that Venkat has root priveleges, changing just any old
} program to be setuid can have serious consequences.  I recently found
} that a program that had been changed to setuid root for using the
} SVR4 real-time scheduler didn't deal with file access correctly, and
} could be used by anyone to overwrite any file in the system.
} 
} In this case, I believe it's better to use some connection to syslog
} (either the syslog subroutine or the logger program), since that will
} allow for configuration of the messages.  Programs (including parts
} of the kernel) should avoid writing directly to the console.
}-- End of excerpt from David Elliott


        OK OK, you got me!  I hadn't thought of that, and I should have said
something about security.  I did assume (I know.) that it was a isolated
program though.



-- 
-Buck                    ! User n.: A programmer who will believe 
(buck at sct60a.sunyct.edu) !          anything you tell him.



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