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Bugtraq archives for 2nd quarter (Apr-Jun) 1998: Re: quickie fix to xdm port problem

Re: quickie fix to xdm port problem

Ian Goldberg (iangCS.BERKELEY.EDU)
Fri, 22 May 1998 00:34:09 GMT 

In article <199805191416.IAA10325cybers0d20.cg.wave.shaw.ca>,
id est  <mrnSHAW.WAVE.CA> wrote:
>When "xdm" starts up, it creates a random high-numbered port
>that is apparently vulnerable to buffer overruns.  The following
>is an extremely stone-knives-and-bearskins hack to deal with
>this problem, useful for those of us who just run X on a single
>machine and don't use "chooser".
>
>Get the source for "xdm" and comment out the line
>
>    chooserFd = socket (AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
>
>in the file "socket.c".  Build and install.  That's it.
>
>This closes that particular hole, abeit crudely.  xdm starts
>up, seems to run normally, and does not create that random high-
>numbered port.

This is _still_ there?!  I sent them a patch for this like _years_ ago!

I still have their response (but I don't seem to still have the message I
sent which contains the patch):

> Subject: Re: xdm does not close chooserFd on fork
> In-Reply-To: Message from iagoldbecalum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca of 31 Jul 95 9:41:36 EDT
>         <199507311341.JAA10454calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca>
> X-Bugs-Incarnation: gildeax.org
> Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 15:42:09 EDT
> From: X Bug Reports <bugsx.org>
>
> Thank you for sending a bug report to xbugsx.org.  Nice analysis.
> Your report has been tagged and entered into the X bug database.
>
>                                         xbugsx.org

Ugh.

   - Ian