Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Mon, 23 Dec 1996 08:52:44 -0801 (PST) | From | Trevor Johnson <> | Subject | Re: NT vulnerable to attack on CPU |
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jamesh wrote: > > Trevor Johnson wrote: [...] > > I ran that under 2.1.17 and was rewarded with multiple oopses, > > This is comparing applets^H^Hs and oranges... > > The NT problem is caused by running code produced somewhere else. It > could be triggered by a "Cancel" button on an applet written someone > half-way arround the world in the opposite hemisphere. > > The Linux program has to be run by a user logged onto the system. Quite > a bit of difference.
ActiveX programs, regardless of who provides them, also have to be run by someone logged into the system. I don't see how it's relevant though.
> You can convieniently remove users that do this > sort of thing from the system.
Nothing made it into the syslog when I tried this exploit. Suppose I'd done it on a system where there were 50 users logged in, and I'd put the little (<4kB) binary in /tmp, /tmp were on a ramdisk, and I didn't leave fork.c lying around. Alternatively, suppose that I innocently wrote some really bad code and ran it from my unprivileged account. I'd feel more comfortable if it weren't possible to crash the whole system that way.
> Besides, you can allocate resources via > ulimit in bash to circumvent the problem before it happens.
I'm using tcsh. In /etc/login.defs I have:
ULIMIT 2097152
and the system has 64 MB RAM, no swap. Ideally, the kernel wouldn't need the insulation of the "right" shell, properly configured ulimits, and so on.
> Even so, I ran the program on 2.0.27 with unlimited resources in bash > (in X). I was able to get a console and bring the system dowm. If ps > hadn't barfed, I could have recovered without bringing down the system. > I ran the program with process limits set at 100, and was able to kill > the parent shell and regain control of the system.
Ah yes, 2.0 is the stable series. I'll try 2.0.27 as well.
> You can tell your NT friend; Nice Try - maby Next Time - Not Today...
No one was advocating NT. ___ Trevor Johnson <trevor@jpj..net>
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