Re: SECURITY PROBLEM: filesystem permiossion bypass on FD already opened

From: David Wagner
Date: Fri Oct 23 2009 - 18:56:01 EST


NiTRo wrote:
> Just discovered this security problem [...]
>If a FD is opened on a allowed file and then the permission is changed
>the file is still redeable starting from the already read position to
>the EOF.

This is not a security problem; this is Unix working as designed.
That's how file descriptors work. File permissions are checked when
the file is opened, not on every read/write to the file descriptor.
That's a pretty fundamental aspect of how Unix works, and it is
well-documented and well-understood.

On the other hand, the /proc attack that Pavel explains *is* a
security problem. But that's different.
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