[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Is this why you shouldn't log in as root?



On Tue, 29 Apr 2003, Travis Crump wrote:
> Personally, I am constantly logged in as root on vt3 and almost never 
> use 'su'.  I think it was someone on this list that made me irrationally 
> paranoid that someone[somehow[remember I freely admit that it is an 
> irrational fear]] will run a keystroke logger on my X session and pick 
> up my root password if I use su.  And if I were able to use sudo to do 
> the kind of things that I use root for, than so can an attacker.[it 
> scares me to think of how many computers: sudo 'echo "Yes, do as I say!" 
> | apt-get remove --purge libc6' : would work with and even without a 
> normal user password].

Argh, paranoia! Its infectious.

*quickly runs to his terminal*

Okay, after a few tests, it seems that sudo by itself won't let any 
normal redirections through, so I'm assuming that your complaint is with 
the people who configure sudo in such a way that their non-root user can 
run a variety of insecure packages, especially without a password.

OTOH, even with some tests (not using echo though), I don't believe
pipes will work if passed to sudo.  Even plain '' or "" quotes won't
work for sudos.  From my outut:

[dasunt@pong:~]$ sudo 'apt-get update'
sudo: apt-get update: command not found
[dasunt@pong:~]$ sudo "apt-get update"
sudo: apt-get update: command not found
[dasunt@pong:~]$ sudo apt-get update
Hit http://www.tux.org woody/main Packages [ ...snip rest ]
[dasunt@pong:~]$ sudo apt-get update|whoami
dasunt

Was this an older bug, or a misconfiguration bug that you speak of?

Speaking of irrational paranoia, just wait until someone hijacks your 
session on vt3!

-- 
        ...crying "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!"... ~ HPL
 icq : 34583382              |     === ascii ribbon campaign ===
 msn : dasunt@hotmail.com    |  ()  - against html mail
 yim : tsunad                |  /\  - against proprietary attachments

Attachment: pgpuOGTYpYeUH.pgp
Description: PGP signature


Reply to: