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SubjectRe: Glitch in sys_chroot()



On Thu, 14 Nov 1996, Elliot Lee wrote:
>
> I still think that Linux should do the chdir() before the chroot(). If you
> can provide a reason why - besides "because that's the way it has been
> done" - I'd say you have a valid point. Until then I remain unconvinced,
> because of the possible security concerns from lax programming.
>
> In other words, are there any solid reasons other than vague tradition why
> it shouldn't be done?

There are two reasons why it shouldn't be done:
- vague tradition
- don't change things that aren't broken

There simply is no good reason to change it. Ergo, it doesn't get changed.

Now, I know that people think that it would be safer if chroot() changed
the pwd too, but I have a few arguments against that, namely:

- any program that is security conscious should NOT depend on behaviour
that is not portable or guaranteed. As such, if there is a program that
would be fixed by having chroot(2) do a chdir too, that program is
BROKEN, regardless of what the kernel does. Because the program would
be broken on (a) older Linux versions and (b) any other systems.

- even if chroot() _did_ do a chdir, it wouldn't automatically be 100%
secure. People who depend on chroot would _still_ have to know what
they are doing, and as such the "extra protection" offered by doing a
chdir() is pretty much worthless.

For example, if you do a script that does

chroot /ftp xxxxx

you should NOT automatically assume that the "xxxx" cannot get out of the
chrooted environment if a malicious person has access to "xxxx". Even if
you do a "chdir()", the malicious user could then do

do_script < /

and the "xxxx" program can do a "fchdir(0)".

Quote of the day: "Security is not trivial, and trying to fix security
problems with trivial fixes does not work".

Note: The chroot (8) program should probably get fixed, because it seems
other systems chroot-programs _do_ change the cwd, so in the case of
chroot (8) the "vague tradition" is reason enough to change it.

Note 2: I'm not dead set against doing a chdir() too in the kernel, but in
order to add it I'd really need a better reason than the ones I've seen so
far. "Vague tradition" is actually a pretty strong reason in itself, as
one of the design philosophies of Linux has been to be compatible: not
only with some paper standard (POSIX), but with "real life". So it
actually weighs more than you'd think..

Linus


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