Re: [LI] dosemu from User login worked , What is SUID ?

[Vimal Mathew <vml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 20 December 1999, Rajesh Fowkar wrote:
> What is this SETUID and which programs need this to be set.
 Any program with SETUID set runs with the permissions of the owner
of the program, and not that of the person executing it. Often,
programs need to be run by users which need the permissions of
superuser(root), like X-Windows and SVGALIB programs(which need "root"
access to your console). "dosemu" also needs setuid...
> While installing why they are not SETUID by default.
 For security reasons.....
 Just try out the following:
 As root,
  cp /bin/bash /tmp/a ; chmod +s /tmp/a
 Now, as a normal user,
  id ; /tmp/a
 And then run "id" again...
 You have escalated permissions to root. Bugs in an setuid program
can result in a malicious user ending up as root. Programs running as
root(like some daemons), or programs that can be started up as root
(setuid root) are security problems.
---
 Most installs however do install the required programs as setuid.
The turning off of the setuid bit is usually done by a security
conscious admin.
--
Bye,
--vml,
Model Engg. College, Cochin.


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