Re: c programming in Linux

[Sudhakar Chandrasekharan <thaths@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Shashank Banerjee proclaimed:
> >> I put ./ in my bash_profile's path.
> >On a Unix system, that is akin to suicide. You may believe it makes life
> >easier, but in reality you are defeating the safety mechanism.
> Safety mechanism... what kind? Could you please elborate?

What if J. Malicious Cracker broke into your system and placed a program
called 'ls' in some directory?  If '.' precedes other directories in your
$PATH you would be running Malicious's ls instead of the system ls when you
run ls in the directory where J.M.C's ls is located.  And J.M.C's ls could
be doing unspeakable things to your machine.

This problem is compounded a few times if root is the user with '.' in
their $PATH.  Seasoned system admins have learnt to type the full path of
the various commands.

Thaths
- -- 
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Sudhakar C13n http://people.netscape.com/thaths/ Lead Indentured Slave
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