From: Brian McCauley (mccauleyba@vms1.bham.ac.uk)
Date: 07/31/93


From: mccauleyba@vms1.bham.ac.uk (Brian McCauley)
Subject: Re: rsh: "rcmd: socket: Permission denied"
Date: 31 Jul 1993 12:25:53 GMT

In article <23broe$9v0@europa.eng.gtefsd.com>, niemidc@oasis.gtefsd.com (David C. Niemi) writes:
> In article 1@vms1.bham.ac.uk, mccauleyba@vms1.bham.ac.uk (Brian McCauley) writes:
>>In article <239eqn$4nd@csdpc2.arlut.utexas.edu>, phaedrus@arlvs1.arlut.utexas.edu (James Jurach) writes:
>>> |> ~ % rsh loopback
>>> |> rcmd: socket: Permission denied
>>
>>rsh should be installed setuid(root)
>
> This will make things work, but it is a security hole big enough to fly a
> 747 through, just in case you care.
>
Buzzt.. Wrong.

Having rsh _not_ suid(root) is a security hole. (After I posted I wondered
on the way home if someone would make this mistake).

If it was possible to have rsh work non-suid root then anyone could
take a copy of the sources and hack it to fake the uid and then connect
to any machine in the local group (as defined by hosts.equiv) as any
user without a password.

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