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From: iand@labtam.labtam.oz (Ian Donaldson)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: Beware xargs security holes
Message-ID: <5627@labtam.labtam.oz>
Date: 23 Nov 90 05:27:20 GMT
References: <1990Oct20.032718.1874@cbnews.att.com> <CVO6DA5@xds2.ferranti.com>
Sender: news@labtam.labtam.oz
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karl@ficc.ferranti.com (Karl Lehenbauer) writes:

>In article <1990Oct20.032718.1874@cbnews.att.com> res@cbnews.att.com (Robert E. Stampfli) writes:
>>No user, malicious or not, can remove "every file on the system."
>>In fact, I contend it is impossible to remove the last instance of
>>an executable that contains the unlink() system call.

If the executable is built with non-shared text (ie unpure) then its
possible on most UNIXen.  On some UNIXen its even possible with shared
text binaries (eg: SVR4, SUNOS4.1)

Ian D