Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 09:43:50 +0200 From: Ruslan Ermilov <ru@FreeBSD.org> To: Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org> Cc: cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org, cvs-all@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/gnu/usr.bin/man/man Makefile man.c src/etc/mtree BSD.local.dist BSD.usr.dist BSD.x11-4.dist BSD.x11.dist Message-ID: <20020116094350.A40637@sunbay.com> In-Reply-To: <20020116132917.K78030@wantadilla.lemis.com> References: <200201151411.g0FEB6H82165@freefall.freebsd.org> <20020116132917.K78030@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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On Wed, Jan 16, 2002 at 01:29:17PM +1030, Greg Lehey wrote: > On Tuesday, 15 January 2002 at 6:11:05 -0800, Ruslan Ermilov wrote: > > ru 2002/01/15 06:11:05 PST > > > > Modified files: > > gnu/usr.bin/man/man Makefile man.c > > etc/mtree BSD.local.dist BSD.usr.dist > > BSD.x11-4.dist BSD.x11.dist > > Log: > > Do not install man(1) setuid ``man''. > > > > The catpaging and setuidness features of man(1) combined make > > it vulnerable to a number of security attacks. ... > > > > This means man(1) can no longer create system catpages on a > > regular user's behalf. (It is still able to if the user has > > write permissions to the directory holding catpages, e.g., > > user's own manpages, or if the running user is ``root''.) > > Hmm. I can see the security implications, but you'd need to > compromise the system in the first place in order to break it, so it's > not the most likely thing on earth. On the other hand, many people > don't have such extreme security requirements, and they might get a > little upset by the change. > > > To create and install catpages during ``make world'', please set > > MANBUILDCAT=YES in /etc/make.conf. > > This won't help people installing from CD-ROM. It also takes up a lot > of space. It would be nice to think of an alternative, like maybe a > private catman directory for non-root users. > I don't have anything to add to the Robert's and Crist's replies except probably noting again that to create catpages (private or system) the calling user now needs to have a write access to the directory holding catpages. If security implications are not important on your machine, you can easily make these directories world-writable thus reverting to the old insecure behavior (yes, this is almost equivalent to the old behavior). man(1) then will be able to create catpages. Even more, you can utilize the SUIDDIR kernel option to make these files always owned by the ``man'' (or whatever) user. :-) Cheers, -- Ruslan Ermilov Oracle Developer/DBA, ru@sunbay.com Sunbay Software AG, ru@FreeBSD.org FreeBSD committer, +380.652.512.251 Simferopol, Ukraine http://www.FreeBSD.org The Power To Serve http://www.oracle.com Enabling The Information Age To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe cvs-all" in the body of the message
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