Re: untrusted translators

[Neal H. Walfield]

At 20 Mar 2005 20:15:03 -0800,
Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote:
> 
> Marcus Brinkmann <marcus.brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de> writes:
> 
> > Following untrusted translators in the filesystem is a real security
> > hazard.
> 
> Can you say more about a specific losing scenario?  I did my level
> best to make sure that following translators doesn't give away any
> privs.  What's the problem?

A simple example of problem is a translator with an infinite file
hierarchy.  That can be done in the file system using finite space:
the root directory contains a directory, DIR, with inode #3, which
contains a directory, DIR, with inode #4, which contains a directory,
DIR with inode #5, etc.  Any process trying to list this part of the
VFS will end up in an infinite loop.  This would affect the program
which updates the locate database, users who run `find /', etc.