Re: misc/42237: /dev/null permission issues

["Greg A. Woods" <woods%planix.ca@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR misc/42237; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: "Greg A. Woods" <woods%planix.ca@localhost>
To: Lucio Albornoz <l.illanes%gmx.de@localhost>
Cc: NetBSD GNATS <gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost>,
        misc-bug-people%netbsd.org@localhost
Subject: Re: misc/42237: /dev/null permission issues
Date: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:27:57 -0500

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 At Tue, 3 Nov 2009 00:39:38 +0100, Lucio Albornoz <l.illanes%gmx.de@localhost> 
wrote:
 Subject: Re: misc/42237: /dev/null permission issues
 >=20
 > On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 02:10:01PM +0000, mr.qweo%gmail.com@localhost wrote:
 > > There are strange issues with /dev/null access permissions in a
 > > fresh installation of NetBSD [ ... ]. First, these (permissions)
 > > are nowhere near persistent [ ... ] Moreover, strange things
 > > (appear to?) happen: it looks like /dev/null permissions are
 > > being changed along the way (one day I found /dev/null it belonging
 > > to my primary group rather than to wheel, and I was nowhere near
 > > to claiming such kind authority over it :-) ).
 >=20
 > Same issue as <http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=3Dbin/132367>
 > perhaps?
 
 Anyone who makes a symlink point at /dev/null is just asking for big
 trouble, especially if it is any pathname that could ever be accessed in
 any way by any privileged process.
 
 That said though, I've always thought some of these important system
 device files should have something close to the "system immutable flag"
 (schg) set on them so that their permissions and ownerships cannot be
 changed during normal operation.
 
 --=20
                                                Greg A. Woods
                                                Planix, Inc.
 
 <woods%planix.com@localhost>       +1 416 218 0099        
http://www.planix.com/
 
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