Re: Dangerous to have ~/bin first in $PATH [was Re: Odd Path issue]

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

Andy Saxena wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 26, 2002 at 01:55:40PM -0500, Kent West wrote:
>  
>
> > I'm using bash. "echo $PATH" reports:
> >
> > ~/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games
> >
> >    
>
> Putting ~/bin first in your $PATH is a security risk. Consider that if
> your user account got hacked into, somebody could place a modified top,
> ls, less executable in your ~/bin directory. These executables could be
> modified to perform tasks extraneous to what the legitimate executables
> do, like mailing your personal files to the cracker.
>
> -Andy
>
>
>  
Good point; thanks for pointing it out. I'll change it on my systems by 
putting it at the end of the path.

Kent