Re: inheritable set [was Re: caps in elf headers: use the sticky

Stephen C. Tweedie (sct@redhat.com)
Thu, 22 Apr 1999 22:53:13 +0100 (BST)


Hi,

On Wed, 21 Apr 1999 13:39:09 -0700 (PDT), Y2K <y2k@y2ker.com> said:

>> No, because "more" wouldn't have any capabilities in its "inheritable"
>> set, so it would NOT inherit any capabilities which its parents had.

> Thats not very compatible, right now if the parent has the caps they flow
> to their children.

Right. That's the entire point: automatic inheritence of all caps is a
potential security problem, as it lets privileges leak into programs
which weren't designed to cope with those privs. You _can't_ change
that while maintaining compatibility. It's a simple one way choice:
compatibility necessarily implies preserving an entire class of security
vulnerabilities.

--Stephen

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