Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!dptg!mtune!jrw
From: jrw@mtune.ATT.COM (Jim Webb)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: How to prevent VI from getting a shell?
Summary: nope
Keywords: vi
Message-ID: <789@mtune.ATT.COM>
Date: 17 Sep 90 15:20:55 GMT
References: <501@trux.UUCP> <570@DIALix.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T BL Middletown/Lincroft NJ USA
Lines: 23

In article <570@DIALix.UUCP>, bernie@DIALix.UUCP (Bernd Felsche) writes:
> In article <501@trux.UUCP> car@trux.UUCP (Chris Rende) writes:
> >If I want to give someone access to VI and yet deny them access to a shell,
> >how do I prevent the user from using VI's "<ESC>:!" command?
> 
> set SHELL in the environment to something which doest nothing, say
> /bin/true.  vi forks-execs whatever SHELL is defined to be, or the
> shell if undefined.

True, but.....

	$ SHELL=/bin/true ex	# ex is easier to deal with here :-)
	:sh			# run a shell....
	!			# comes right back
	:set shell=/bin/sh	# hmmm....
	:sh			# now what can I do....
	$ 

Later,

-- 
Jim Webb                "Out of Phase -- Get Help"               att!mtune!jrw
                  "I'm bored with this....Let's Dance!"