Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!oliveb!orc!decwrl!decwrl!mikey
From: mikey@decwrl.dec.com (Mike Yang)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: xterm is setuid - why? Dangerous?
Message-ID: <117@gilroy.dec.com>
Date: 7 Apr 90 02:29:44 GMT
References: <1990Apr5.005054.6999@melba.bby.oz.au> <272@roo.UUCP>
Organization: DEC Western Software Lab
Lines: 15

In article <272@roo.UUCP> janssen@parc.xerox.com (Bill Janssen) writes:
>In article <1990Apr5.005054.6999@melba.bby.oz.au>, gnb@bby (Gregory N. Bond) writes:
>>Xterm got installed setuid, owned by me.
>>
>>Why is it setuid?
>
>I'd be interested in knowing, too.

Xterm adds an entry to /etc/utmp so that if you do "finger" or "w" it
shows up.  Since this file is usually not world-writable, xterm is
installed setuid root.

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Mike Yang	   Western Software Laboratory	Digital Equipment Corporation
mikey@wsl.dec.com	  decwrl!mikey			 415/853-6677