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From: andre@targon.UUCP (andre)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Is it possible to hide process args from 'ps -ef'??
Keywords: ps exec
Message-ID: <1697@targon.UUCP>
Date: 23 Apr 91 21:04:54 GMT
References: <1414@compel.UUCP>
Organization: Siemens Nixdorf Informationsystems BV.,SWZ, Vianen, the Netherlands.
Lines: 34

In article <1414@compel.UUCP> her@compel.UUCP (Helge Egelund Rasmussen) writes:
  >It is possible to give Oracle programs the username/password on the
  >command line, ie :
  >    $ sqlplus scott/tiger

  >This is all very nice, BUT when another user execute 'ps -ef' he/she
  >can see the password!

  >Is it possible to hide the arguments, so that they won't show up in
  >the 'ps' output (possibly by 'exec'ing sqlplus in some devious way :-)??

Sure you can, try this for size:

main(argc, argv)
int argc;
char **argv;
{
	char p[512];
	if (argc == 2)
	{
	    strcpy(p, argv[1]);
	    memset(argv[1], '\0', strlen(argv[1]));
	    sleep(30);  /* time to check */
	    printf("argv[1] was %s \n",p);
	}
	return 0;
}

NOTE: untested code, but this explains the idea.
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