Xref: utzoo comp.unix.internals:1257 comp.unix.programmer:634 comp.unix.admin:663 comp.unix.wizards:23828 Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!barmar From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin) Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals,comp.unix.programmer,comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Preventing date rollback Message-ID: <1990Dec5.061038.23772@Think.COM> Date: 5 Dec 90 06:10:38 GMT References: Sender: news@Think.COM Distribution: comp Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA Lines: 15 In article richard@dataspan.dataspan.UUCP (Richard "Tiger" Melville) writes: >Is there a reliable way to test if the date on a machine has been rolled >back ? (System files which have modified dates in the future might do the >trick.) No, there isn't. Anyone who has access to change the date would also have access to change anything that the program might look at to verify the date. The Unix superuser is all-powerful within that system. If he's clever enough, he could patch the executable file so that it would skip over the date checks. -- Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar