--On Tue, Nov 3, 1998 12:38 pm -0500 "Roland McGrath" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > It would be simple to add the feature to the Hurd, but we will not do so > unless we are convinced of its utility. > >> So: Is setfsuig a "Linuxism"? Is there a replacement? > > Yes, it is a Linux invention. I can't tell you why ncurses uses them, but I can give you an example: Nfsd uses them because it needs to write files as a particular non-root user, for security reasons. However, if it calls setuid, it exposes itself to signals from that user - which is bad. So it calls setfsuid to make its file-system access limited without having to expose itself to a signal attack. I don't know the details of the signal attack - presumably someone devised a race condition.. Jules /----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------\ | Jelibean aka | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | 6 Evelyn Rd | | Jules aka | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Richmond, Surrey | | Julian Bean | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | TW9 2TF *UK* | +----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------+ | Debian GNU/Linux - "Microsoft *does* have a year 2000 problem - | | and we're it!" (paraphrased from IRC) | \----------------------------------------------------------------------/
