Bug 2308

Summary: su doesn't print error message when fork () fails
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: martin
Component: sh-utilsAssignee: Cristian Gafton <gafton>
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: 5.2CC: martin
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Hardware: i386   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
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Last Closed: 1999-07-29 01:13:18 UTC Type: ---
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Description martin 1999-04-21 10:28:54 UTC 
There's a small problem in su (sh-utils 1.16):

run_shell () is already run with the target user's identity;
when USE_PAM you'll find this code around line 519:

  child = fork();
  if (child == 0) {  /* child shell */

This uses a fork () when we already have the identity of
the target user and does not catch any errors when this
fork fails.

The problem occured when trying to su from root to a
non-root user which already had the maximum number of
possible processes running. Su simply died without doing
anything and there was no error message at all.

One should change this code to make it at least write an
error message to syslog - it is very confusing for root
if the su simply fails without printing an error message.

Martin
Comment 1 Jay Turner 1999-06-30 16:46:59 UTC 
This issue has been forwarded to a developer for further action.
Comment 2 Cristian Gafton 1999-07-29 01:13:59 UTC 
fixed in sh-utils-1.16-24 and later