Re: Exploit in Upgrade Chain?

[Lupe Christoph <lupe@lupe-christoph.de>]

On Thursday, 2009-02-12 at 12:11:01 -0800, The Well - Systems Administrator wrote:
> 600 on /etc is technically more secure than the default 755 with normal  
> POSIX systems, not less. If this is an exploit, it's one that locks  
> things down tighter than they should normally be. :) Giacomo is correct  
> that these incorrect perms can cause other issues, though not security  
> related ones that I can think of.

Mode 600 will deny /etc to everybody except root while it will change
nothing for root. If you have any services on your system that run under
non-root UIDs, and that have config under /etc, you hose them with any
mode that removes the eXecute bit for "others".

So it's not an exploit, it's a Denial of Service. Which I believe *is*
security related...

Lupe Christoph
-- 
| There is no substitute for bad design except worse design.                   |
| /me                                                                          |