/etc/ps_data

[Chris Lewis]

In article <371 at westmark.UU.NET> dave at westmark.UU.NET (Dave Levenson) writes:

[ regarding ps/ps_data problems ]

> I would like to thank all of the net.friends who replied to this
> posting.  To summarize the replies, the ps command must be installed
> setgid sys, and the ownership of the /etc directory must be user
> root, group sys.  The modes of the /etc directory must be 775.
 
> I'm not sure why this was that way.  We installed the UNIX
> foundation set, and then a number of add-on packages, and I'm not
> sure where, along the way, the group of /etc got changed.

It's probably due to one or more of the add-on packages.  Sometimes
due to which user you install things with.

We discovered with ISC 386/ix 1.0.6 that after we had loaded some
of the ISC options that things like /, /usr, /bin, /etc had become 
mode 777 and other similar wierdnesses.  This was reported to HCR
(Canadian distributor of 386/ix) over a year ago.

For a considerably worse situation, regard the 3b1 - depending on the
circumstances, ordinary everyday operations with UA can result in things like
/etc or / being mode 777 (which someone took advantage of some time ago
before we implemented our security package), and setgetty has been known 
to change /etc/inittab to mode 666.  UA can also scramble /etc/passwd and
L.sys entries.  (not to mention the out-and-out unplugable security holes
that are liberally sprinkled throughout UA).

Our security package reports at least one vital permission correction made 
*daily* on our 3b1's, which is pretty frightening when you consider that 
we don't even use UA anymore...  On the other hand, without software 
installations, *nothing* has ever changed "mysteriously" on the 386.

When we install our package on other systems, you'd be amazed at the
things you find - very large Deltas, Towers, RT's etc. with world 
writable /bin, /dev, /etc etc..  Sheesh.

This isn't exclusive to ISC...

Let this be a lesson - check the permissions/ownership of vital things
after software installations - the / made world writable may be yours....
-- 
Chris Lewis, Elegant Communications Inc, {uunet!attcan,utzoo}!lsuc!eci386!clewis
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