System command on FreeBSD...

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Wed, Dec 29, 2004 at 04:43:35PM -0500, Kenneth Brody wrote:
> >   2.  Does this work on SCO OpenServer?  I thought their commends to change
> >       the effective uid were a one-way trapdoor.
> 
> As listed in the docs for PFSYSEUID:
> 
>     A SYSTEM command will be executed without the filePro setuid.  Some
>     systems may not allow a program to reclaim a setuid after giving it
>     up.  On these systems, setting this variable will cause bad things
>     to happen to filePro.  SCO OSV5 does not have a problem with this.
>     Linux kernels prior to 1.1.37 have a problem.

I'm confused.

SYSTEM will spawn a *subshell*, and it should be the *subshell* wherein
filePro drops the EUID... which will fail to affect the parent at all,
no?

Is it not done in the subshell?

If so, is there a specific reason why not?

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
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      If you can read this... thank a system adminstrator.  Or two.  --me