Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!van-bc!tacitus!clh
From: clh@tacitus.tfic.bc.ca (Chris Hermansen)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Which RDBMS need setUID root?  Informix?
Keywords: Unix, Security
Message-ID: <129@tacitus.tfic.bc.ca>
Date: 27 Nov 89 21:15:54 GMT
References: <6006@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <1989Nov24.092221.15741@agsm.ucla.edu> <1023@maxim.erbe.se>
Reply-To: clh@tfic.bc.ca (Chris Hermansen)
Organization: Timberline Forest Inventory Consultants, Vancouver BC
Lines: 61

In article <1023@maxim.erbe.se> prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) writes:
>In article <1989Nov24.092221.15741@agsm.ucla.edu>, ggordon@agsm.ucla.edu (Glen Gordon) writes:
>
>> In article <6006@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart ) writes:
>
>> >We're trying to pick an RDBMS to do applications in a secure computer
>> >environment, so we need to find one that doesn't use setUID root.
>> >SetUID to some specific user is ok, but root is out.
>
>> We are using Informix esqlc and 4gl on an HP9000 S850, 
>> set-uid informix, and everything works  fine.  Given a few more details, 
>> I am more than willing to help you figure out why it doesn't work for you.
>
>As far as I know, Informix needs to be SUID root so it can bump the ulimit
>out of sight. After having done that, it reverts to non-SUID. I believe you
>cannot remove the SUID from informix, since it checks for error returns and
>aborts if the ulimit couldn't be changed.

Well, we use Informix SQL on Sun 3's, and here's what our informix bin
directory looks like:

tacitus% ls -lg /usr/informix/bin
total 3199
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix    90112 Jan  8  1989 bcheck
-rwsr-sr-x  1 root     informix    24576 Jan  8  1989 changrp
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   204800 Jan  8  1989 dbconvert
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   131072 Jan  8  1989 dbload
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   139264 Jan  8  1989 dbschema
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   163840 Jan  8  1989 dbupdate
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   155648 Jan  8  1989 deccon
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   434176 Jan  8  1989 isql
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix     4125 Jan  8  1989 isqldemo
-rwsr-sr-x  1 root     informix    24576 Jan  8  1989 mkdbsdir
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   434176 Jan  8  1989 sacego
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   434176 Jan  8  1989 saceprep
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix     1437 Jan  8  1989 salesdemo
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   434176 Jan  8  1989 sformbld
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix   434176 Jan  8  1989 sperform
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix    81920 Jan  8  1989 sqlconv
tacitus%

Note that only `changrp' and `mkdbsdir' are setuid root here; I would
*guess* that these only get used under certain limited circumstances that
the user might be able to avoid.  However, the situation in the lib
directory is more ominous:

tacitus% ls -lg /usr/informix/lib
total 344
-rwsr-sr-x  1 root     informix   278528 Jan  8  1989 sqlexec
-rwxr-xr-x  1 informix informix    65536 Jan  8  1989 sqlexecd
tacitus%

Note here that `sqlexec', the database agent, is setuid root.  Perhaps
Mr. Claeson is correct?

I must admit that I have never tried to chown sqlexec...

Chris Hermansen                         Timberline Forest Inventory Consultants
Voice: 1 604 733 0731                   302 - 958 West 8th Avenue
FAX:   1 604 733 0634                   Vancouver B.C. CANADA
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