Xref: utzoo alt.security:1647 comp.unix.sysv386:872 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!tcdcs!dce.ie!em From: em@dce.ie (Eamonn McManus) Newsgroups: alt.security,comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Re: Here's how to stop shell escapes from vi Message-ID: Date: 1 Oct 90 10:34:12 GMT References: <2441@sud509.ed.ray.com> <1990Sep18.120450.14590@nstar.uucp> <1990Sep20.153105.28394@naitc.naitc.com> <11285:Sep2022:15:2090@kr <924@mwtech.UUCP> Organization: Datacode Communications Ltd, Dublin, Ireland Lines: 20 In article wayne@dsndata.uucp (Wayne Schlitt) writes: >In article peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: ... >> Just zap the "/bin/sh" and the name of the "shell" variable. ... >ok, /bin/sh can be zapped easily, but i am not sure about the SHELL >variable. what to you zap it to? changing "SHELL" to "XXXXX" just >moves the problem, using unprintable characters probably wont solve it >either. would zapping the 'S' to a '\0' really work? Changing the string "shell" to a null string works. This string may occur twice, depending on the compiler: once for the :set shell option and once for the :shell command. You also want to get "sh" which is an allowed abbreviation for the shell option. >i havent try any of this, but without source, it would be hard to >verify that all the holes are plugged. I agree; if anyone is very concerned about security they should hack the source of some editor, not rely on patching binaries in the dark.