*BSD News Article 91170


Return to BSD News archive

Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!metro!metro!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!news.sgi.com!newsfeed.nacamar.de!fu-berlin.de!unlisys!cs.tu-berlin.de!zrz.TU-Berlin.DE!IN-Berlin.DE!fub!mind.de!nostromo.in-berlin.de!ripley
From: ripley@nostromo.in-berlin.de (H. Eckert)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Keyboard Lockup; xload
Date: 14 Mar 1997 10:54:06 GMT
Organization: Private access site (FreeBSD 2.1-R), Berlin, Germany, Europe
Lines: 21
Message-ID: <slrn5iibie.qdc.ripley@nortobor.nostromo.in-berlin.de>
References: <5g7frp$221@nntp1.ba.best.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: nortobor.nostromo.in-berlin.de
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Newsreader: slrn (0.8.8.2 UNIX)
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:37133

lowtek@best.com (Spencer Low):
> In another note, the standard installation of the X Windows stuff with
> FreeBSD 2.1.6 installed xload, but it was not set-g-id in the kmem
> group. Is this a major security risk (for xload to be set-g-id to
> kmem), or is this just an oversight of the FreeBSD installation?

I'd say it is intended that way.  On my 2.1.0 it isn't sgid either
and working fine.  Apparently the getloadavg(3) routine allows a cleanly
non-privilidged access to the information.  The main reason for setting
xload to sgid kmem is to retrieve the load information from kernel
structures anyway, so you don't need to do that if you can get the
data from an official source.

Greetings,
				Ripley
-- 
H. Eckert, 10777 Berlin, Germany
ISO 8859-1: Ä=Ae, Ö=Oe, Ü=Ue, ä=ae, ö=oe, ü=ue, ß=sz.
"(Technobabbel)" (Jetrel) - "Müssen wir uns diesen Schwachsinn wirklich
anhören?" (Neelix)