What reason should /dev/kmem not be world-readable?

John F. Haugh II jfh at rpp386.Dallas.TX.US
Thu Nov 10 00:42:06 AEST 1988


In some long lost article, someone wrote:
>->In fact, when Mark Kampe came to the site to install some goodies
>->we  used  this marvelous program to watch his terminal session on
>->other tubes.  It was better than a script program.

This can be very dangerous.  Letting one of those run on a terminal
root or some other privileged user is likely to use could have nasty
results.

/dev/kmem should never be readable by regular users.  ps and other
kernel pokers should run S(U|G)ID the owner of the device.
-- 
John F. Haugh II                        +----Make believe quote of the week----
VoiceNet: (214) 250-3311   Data: -6272  | Nancy Reagan on Artifical Trish:
InterNet: jfh at rpp386.Dallas.TX.US       |      "Just say `No, Honey'"
UucpNet : <backbone>!killer!rpp386!jfh  +--------------------------------------



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