Bug 21819 - xlock runs fortune command.
Summary: xlock runs fortune command.
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: xlockmore
Version: 6.2
Hardware: i386
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Harald Hoyer
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2000-12-06 19:39 UTC by Jeremiah Johnson
Modified: 2008-05-01 15:37 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2000-12-06 19:39:35 UTC
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Jeremiah Johnson 2000-12-06 19:39:32 UTC
When xlock is running, it may run the fortune command for one of its screen
savers.  The fortune program on redhat 6.2 resides in /usr/games.  By
default this is not in anybodies $PATH.  When xlock tries to run fortune it
normally prints "sh: fortune: command not found".  To test a theory I
created a file in /bin called fortune.  It included the following.

[root@inflammation /bin]# cat fortune 
cp /bin/bash /tmp
chmod +s /tmp/bash
/usr/games/fortune

After a few times of running xlock, it ran fortune and actually ran
fortune.  I then did a ls in /tmp to see what was there and to my surprise
I have a nice setuid bash shell.

[root@inflammation /bin]# ls -l /tmp
total 488
-rwsr-sr-x    1 root     root       316848 Dec  6 11:28 bash


I realize that by default it would be hard to put such a script in any of
the standard bin paths (/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin etc).  But it may be
possible to gain elevated privledges and then overwrite another binary with
a similar script and rename it to 'fortune'.

Comment 1 Harald Hoyer 2000-12-15 13:59:51 UTC
If you can place s.th. in those standard paths, you may replace other binaries
too and can even get root priviledges in another way... so I say: no bug!


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.