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Date:      Sat, 31 Mar 2001 09:34:34 -0500
From:      Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   access() system call
Message-ID:  <3AC5EAFA.C8D4E301@iowna.com>

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This may be a question for -hackers, but I'll try here first.

In the man page for the access(2) syscall, it states "access() is a
potential security hole and should never be used."

I have 3 questions regarding this:

1. What should I use instead?
2. Is there any more information on why access() is such a terrible
security hole?
3. Does not access(1) use access(2)? If so, that would make access(1) a
security problem. Which is not documented in the man page (or anywhere
else that I can find)

Once I find out the answer to some of these questions I'm going to
recommend an update to the access(2) man page, as problems #1 and #2
have left me dead-ended on what should be a quick programming project.
The combination of questions #2 and #3 makes me worry that there may be
a security problem. But I haven't found enough information to determine
anything yet.
Any advice is welcome.

TIA,
Bill

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