Evan Van Dyke wrote: > Peter S Galbraith wrote: >> If some user is capable of putting a fake `ls' in a random directory where >> you might trip on it, that user is far more likely to put it in your ~/bin >> directory! (Same privileges are required) >> >> Just a thought. > > Just make the . directory the _last_ part of your path, that way it will > search /bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin and > all the rest of your path first.
This discussion crops up on this list once a week or so. The bottom line is that users (root especially) should not have a "." anywhere in their path. Lets assume that root has a "." as the last element of his path. He then goes to the home directory of a malignant user, intending to do an "ls" on his dir. Even root is not perfect, so he makes a typo and actually types "sl" instead. The malignant user has a script called "sl" in his home dir: #!/bin/sh # Do bad stuff as root... rm -f sl echo "bash: sl: command not found" >&2 And root never knew what hit him... -- /'"`\ zzzZ | My PGP Public Key is available at: ( - - ) | <http://home1.inet.tele.dk/renehl/> --oooO--(_)--Oooo------------------------------------------ Don't ya just hate it when there's not enough room to fin