[rt-devel] possible security bug

Paul Lussier pll at mclinux.com
Thu Jan 17 15:39:20 EST 2002


Hi, 

While looking at the rt2 source, I noticed that in tools/initdb the 
sub:

	sub prompt_for_dba_password {
	    print "Enter the $DB_TYPE password for $DB_DBA: ";
	
	    system "stty -echo";
	    $DB_DBA_PASSWORD = scalar(<STDIN>); #keep off commandline
	    system "stty echo";
	    chomp $DB_DBA_PASSWORD;
	
	}

calls 'stty' via system() without specifying a path, or making any 
checks of %ENV whatsoever.  

This is not good.  Despite the fact that the person who is installing 
rt2 *probably* has root privileges, they may not, and may be invoking 
'initdb' via something like 'sudo', in which case it's trivial for 
them to then *get* root access by placing something called 'stty' in 
the search path that shows up before the really stty.

I recommend setting an explicit path for 'stty' at the very least, at 
best de-taint only required %ENV variables and unset %ENV.
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
----

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