Is there an FSDB Manual?

[clive at ixi.uucp]

In article <572 at pd1.ccd.harris.com> bill at pd1.ccd.harris.com (Bill Davis) writes:
>In article <4960 at cbnewsm.ATT.COM> szirin at cbnewsm.ATT.COM writes:
>>Of course, anyone that can figure out how to use fsdb can easily read your
>>private file without ever touching the directory entry...
>If this were true, it would be a nasty security hole.
>Just by knowing fsdb, I could look anywhere in a file
>system and read the contents of files.
>
>This doesn't happen here.  Based on information available here, I have reason
>to believe it doesn't happen with the major variants of Unix. Anyone care to
>tell me if I am wrong VIA EMAIL to avoid spreading any "how to break a Unix
>system" information too widely?

There's no need to panic, and it is quite safe to post this. Yes it is true
that fsdb allows you to look anywhere in a file system, and so on, but it
requires access to the disc device (/dev/dsk/... on my machine). If you make
these owned by root or sys with 600 permissions, then noone else can use fsdb
to break security. If anyone can read these devices, then they don't need fsdb
to do it - adb, or at worst, od (!) is enough.
-- 
Clive D.W. Feather
IXI Limited
clive at ixi.uucp
...!uunet!ukc!ixi!clive (riskier)