Re: Weird kernel 2.6.17.[67] behaviour

["Adam Henley" <adamazing@gmail.com>]

On 27/07/06, Sébastien Bernard <seb@frankengul.org> wrote:
> seb@frankengul.org a écrit :
> > I got a perfectly workable kernel 2.6.17.1 using mkinitramfs on my U60.
> >
> > Can you shed some lights on this dark corner of linux ?
> >
> >       Seb

I can't shed any more light on it, but I can look too :o)

The original mailing of the patch to the list is below:
http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0607.1/1694.html

[snip>
The prctl() system call should never allow to set "dumpable" to the
value 2. Especially not for non-privileged users.

This can be split into three cases:
 1) running as root -- then core dumps will already be done as root,
    and so prctl(PR_SET_DUMPABLE, 2) is not useful
 2) running as non-root w/setuid-to-root -- this is the debatable case
 3) running as non-root w/setuid-to-non-root -- then you definitely
    do NOT want "dumpable" to get set to 2 because you have the
    privilege escalation vulnerability
<snip]

Is it that something else is misbehaving and trying to dump core as root?