Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!convex!thurlow From: thurlow@convex.com (Robert Thurlow) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Slashes in filenames? Message-ID: Date: 17 Feb 91 02:01:13 GMT References: <26038@adm.brl.mil> Sender: news@convex.com (news access account) Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx. Lines: 21 Nntp-Posting-Host: dhostwo.convex.com In <26038@adm.brl.mil> STEINKEL%CAR1@leav-emh.army.mil writes: >If the prohibition on slashes in filenames is enforced by the kernel, how >the bleep does NFS get them in there? The NFS server on BSD/Sun systems is implemented as a module that calls virtual file system (VFS) operations directly; the VFS is a layer below the system call interface. Since many of the old, inviolable firewalls are implemented at the system call level, they had to be duplicated in the NFS server logic. Sun's initial implementation didn't catch a number of these, and neither Sun nor the industry as a whole has kept up with closing them as soon as they were found. The slash issue is old news; other things like the server permitting mknod()s by non-root users are still being found. One of the things that makes it tougher is the fact that Unix clients can't send you such a request, since they still have the firewall in the syscall. Rob T -- Rob Thurlow, thurlow@convex.com An employee and not a spokesman for Convex Computer Corp., Dallas, TX