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Bugtraq archives for 3rd quarter (Jul-Sep) 1998: Re: more problems with mailx

Re: more problems with mailx

Nathan Dorfman (nathanRTFM.NET)
Tue, 30 Jun 1998 19:31:35 -0400 

On Mon, Jun 29, 1998 at 12:22:32PM -0400, Segv wrote:
> There seems to be some more problems with mailx. While browsing over the
> source, I found the code that handles the '!' command.
> (this appears in names.c)
>
>   if ((shell = value("SHELL")) == NOSTR)
>         shell = SHELL;
>    execl(shell, shell, "-c", fname, 0);
>
> As you can see the value() function returns a pointer to the value of (the
> envoriment variable) SHELL. If SHELL isn't set it defaults to /bin/bash
> (consult local.h). Then execl() is called to execute the value that shell
> points too. So you can execute commands with sgid mail privs. One problem
> you may run into is shell's that drop privs if rgid != egid, so you could
> simply write a wrapper that calls setrgid(mail) then executes the specified
> command with sgid mail privs.

Nope. Check out main.c, line 56:

        /*
         * Absolutely the first thing we do is save our egid
         * and set it to the rgid, so that we can safely run
         * setgid.  We use the sgid (saved set-gid) to allow ourselves
         * to revert to the egid if we want (temporarily) to become
         * priveliged.
         */

        effectivegid= getegid();
        realgid= getgid();
        if (setgid(realgid) <0) { perror("mailx: setgid real"); exit(1); }

Now it's running with whatever priveleges you had. It switches back to
these priveleges in lock.c when it needs them, then immediately switches
back.

> segv
> <segvsetec.org>

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