Problems with su/csh on Ultrix 4.0/DECstation 5000

[Dan Barrett]

In article <1990Nov27.141002.5396 at ssd.kodak.com> weimer at ssd.kodak.com (Gary Weimer) writes:
>For some reason, su needs to access every directory
>in your current path to be able to access the /etc/passwd file (added
>security?).

	I think there's a simpler explanation.  Imagine what would happen
if you were in a private directory:

		$ cd
		$ mkdir private
		$ chmod 700 private
		$ cd private

and then you tried to "su" to another user and succeeded:

		$ su anotheruser
		Password:
		%

Now "anotheruser" is inside your protected directory.  This contradicts
the mode (-rwx------) of the directory "private", and therefore it cannot
happen.

                                                        Dan

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