Summary: dxterms being created with wrong UID !!!

From: Aharon Schkolnik <aharon_at_healdb.matat.health.gov.il>
Date: 07 Jul 1996 14:50:34 +0300

First, let me say that this list is amazing ! I think we should take
the money we pay to Digital for support and divide it among the people
on this list :-).


Anyway, I wrote:

>> I have no idea what I did - in fact I can't remember doing
>> anything that could be related, but - all of a sudden my
>> dxterms are being created with the wrong uid ! Instead of the
>> uid of aharon, they are being create with the uid of bin ! This
>> appears to happen with any application I start from the window
>> manager - I checked dxterm, and xterm. It also seems to happen
>> to all users (I checked two). This has stumped Digital as well
>> as me.


The problem was with the ownership of a few executables. I verified
the ownership of all files in /usr/bin/X11 with another system, and
now everthing is just fine.


Thanks to:

Dale Cook <cdm_at_hyperk.com>
Henry A Flogel <hflogel_at_wpl.com>
Anthony D'Atri <aad_at_nwnet.net>
Serge Munhoven <munhoven_at_olive.msm.ulg.ac.be>
Mike Iglesias <iglesias_at_draco.acs.uci.edu>
anthony baxter <anthony.baxter_at_aaii.oz.au>


>>>>> "Dale" == Dale Cook <cdm_at_hyperk.com> writes:


    Dale> Are the permissions set right for the executables?

    Dale> -rwsr-xr-x 1 root bin 270336 Feb 2 1995 /usr/bin/X11/dxterm
    Dale> -rwsr-xr-x 1 root bin 221184 Feb 2 1995 /usr/bin/X11/xterm
    Dale> -rwxr-xr-x 1 bin bin 229376 Feb 2 1995
    Dale> /usr/bin/X11/dxsession

    Dale> (Note the setuid bit is on for the (d)xterm.)


>>>>> "Dale" == Dale Cook <cdm_at_hyperk.com> writes:

    Dale> At 06:13 PM 6/27/96 +0300, Aharon Schkolnik wrote:
>> well, I have bin bin instead of root bin for dxterm, and
>> xterm. could that be significant ?

    Dale> It would be on my system - bin is uid 3, while root is uid
    Dale> 0. Basically, xterm needs to be able to run as root so it
    Dale> can change ownership of the pty devices and then run as the
    Dale> user. I would try changing ownership to root and see if
    Dale> that helps. What have you got to lose? :-)

>>>>> "Henry" == Henry A Flogel <hflogel_at_wpl.com> writes:

    Henry> I would bet that your "dxterm" and "xterm" executables in
    Henry> /usr/bin/X11 are owned by the user "bin" and are SUID
    Henry> programs, they are if the programs' permissions are

    Henry> -rwsr-xr-x


>>>>> "Henry" == Henry A Flogel <hflogel_at_wpl.com> writes:

    Henry> The commands: "chmod u-s /usr/i18n/usr/bin/X11/dxterm"
    Henry> "chmod u-s /usr/bin/X11/xterm" will make the processes run
    Henry> as the invoking user rather than the owner of the file; in
    Henry> your case it would be "aharon".

    Henry> I do not know the ramifications of removing the SUID status
    Henry> of the programs (other than making your host more secure).

>>>>> "Anthony" == Anthony D'Atri <aad_at_nwnet.net> writes:

    Anthony> dxterm may well be setuid, and it's possible that someone
    Anthony> changed the user from root to bin, which would have this
    Anthony> sort of effect. Look at the permissions on the binary,
    Anthony> and chown it to root if it's owned by bin.

>>>>> "Serge" == Serge Munhoven <munhoven_at_olive.msm.ulg.ac.be> writes:

    Serge> Just a vague one:

    Serge> Does this happen if you start your dxterm :

    Serge> - from the Applications menu (I guess so)

    Serge> - from the command line (well I guess that that command
    Serge> line belongs to an dxterm belongs to the wrong uid ...; try
    Serge> the next one first)

    Serge> - from the command line of a text terminal (vt100 or a
    Serge> like, or telnet session from anywhere) using "dxterm -ls
    Serge> -display your.display.ip:0.0 &"

    Serge> What about other applications (Bookreader et al.) ?

    Serge> What about the uid of dxsession (that's the one I'm aiming
    Serge> at ... :-) ?

>>>>> "Mike" == Mike Iglesias <iglesias_at_draco.acs.uci.edu> writes:

    Mike> dxterm should be setuid root. Sounds like someone changed
    Mike> the owner of dxterm to bin. Here's what mine looks like:

    Mike> -rwsr-xr-x 1 root bin 688128 Jul 25 1995
    Mike> /usr/bin/X11/dxterm*


>>>>> "anthony" == anthony baxter <anthony.baxter_at_aaii.oz.au> writes:

    anthony> It's not something like xterm now being setuid bin rather
    anthony> than setuid root, is it?

--
  The day is short, and the work is great,     |   Aharon Schkolnik
  and the laborers are lazy, and the reward    |   Aharon_at_Matat.Health.Gov.IL
  is great, and the Master of the house is     |
  impatient. - Ethics Of The Fathers Ch. 2     |
Received on Sun Jul 07 1996 - 14:04:48 NZST

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