If a directory doesn't have execute permission it will still list its contents, complaining about "Permission denied". On Solaris 7, it will not list the contents of a directory without execute permission. This bug allows a user to determine the files contained in directories that he has no permission for.
Can't reproduce it here: [bero@locutus bero] ls /root ls: /root: Permission denied The only filename I get is the directory I was trying to list, a name I've known before.
This will only occur if you have world read permissions but not world execute permissions. This is consistent with Solaris. However, I am still curious why you can display the filenames but not the file details (i.e. from ls -l).