Re: Re: Busybox on musl is affected by CVE-2015-1817

[Harald Becker <ralda@gmx.de>]

Hi !

On 01.04.2015 09:41, u-wsnj@aetey.se wrote:
> Suid is a very old and nowadays quite redundant tool, mostly holding
> ground due to its "simplicity" (say, compared to talking to a daemon)
> and to the tradition. Seen from a different perspective, it is from the
> pre-network epoch ("the computer is the universe") and enforces among
> others hardcoded paths - which is a PITA for reusable and globally
> placed software.

IMO suid and sgid has there advantage over complex communication with 
separate running daemons, but there is one topic, which is missed by so 
many discussions about this: There is a big difference if you talk about 
suid *root* programs or other suid usage.

The former is definitely very dangerous and should be used with extreme 
care (I think this is the case we are talking about), the later use may 
even be used to drop privileges (not to raise), or to temporarily hop to 
the privileges of a different user (may be allowing access to some files 
only by using specific commands).

When used with care and as intended, suid and sgid is a nice feature, 
but nowadays there are too many Unix novices, who misunderstand or 
misuse this, punching big holes in every security concern.


>> I think it would be worth it
>> even if it doubled the size of the ping utility (which it does not).
> +1

ACK +1

--
Harald