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Message-ID: <54137C7F.1040507@redhat.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 17:06:39 -0600
From: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
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To: cygwin@cygwin.com
Subject: Re: Cannot exec() program outside of /bin if PATH is unset
References: <5413271B.1010109@t-online.de> <54134A83.80107@redhat.com> <54135451.3060902@t-online.de> <601154762.20140913012935@yandex.ru> <541378C4.6030705@t-online.de> <54137BDE.6040907@redhat.com>
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On 09/12/2014 05:03 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 09/12/2014 04:50 PM, Christian Franke wrote:
>> Andrey Repin wrote:
>>>> Hmm... is postfix actually broken?
>>>> Unsetting PATH is IMO sane (from the POSIX POV) if all exec() calls use
>>>> absolute path names.
>>> If all exec() calls are made with full paths, unsetting $PATH does not
>>> improve
>>> security in any way,
>>
>> Of course. But postfix could be configured to run "unknown" external
>> programs through its various daemons. In this case, a fixed (here:
>> empty) PATH improves security. If not convinced, please discuss with the
>> author of postfix :-)
>=20
> An empty PATH leaves it up to the implementation what helpers get run
> (if it doesn't fall over first), which is LESS secure than a guaranteed
> safe PATH of confstr(_CS_PATH).

By the way, passing a _safe_ PATH to your child process IS a good idea
for security-conscious programs, but you have to do it correctly (by
passing an actual safe path, and NOT by completely unsetting PATH).

--=20
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org


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