Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!morgan.com!frank
From: frank@morgan.com (Frank Wortner)
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs
Subject: Re: Socket created by emacsclient server
Message-ID: <8811091441.AA06440@s2.Morgan.COM>
Date: 9 Nov 88 14:41:26 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 34

>Unix-domain sockets, just like Internet sockets, need listeners in order
>to be used by any client.  If there is an existing socket with protection
>777 in your home directory, some server process may be able to use that
>as the binding for its Unix-domain socket, but all a client using this
>socket will have access to is whatever that server process gives it.

That is still not an excuse for a program to leave an unused socket
lying around.  If a sort program failed to remove temporary files after
the program finished using them, most people would judge that the program
had a bug.  Any utility should take care to remove and/or release resouces
it no longer needs.

>So unless you run a server that opens a shell to clients using that
>socket, or root does, there is no security problem (if you happen to care

Yet another thing root *shouldn't* do!  What's the point of having a
"super user" if (s)he has to remember not to: 1) have "." in the current
search path; 2) run emacs servers ; 3) etc., ad nauseum ... :-)

>about those, which most non-paranoid people don't).

I don't think the label "paranoid" applies here, but if you want to use it,
then I'm afraid that most computer installations are "paranoid" to one
extent or another.  Dismissing concern about the security and safety of
data (which often represents much hard work) as "paranoia" just does not
wash.  Whether or not this particular problem proves to be a true risk
(and that has not bee proven or disproven), it is a concern of an individual.
That person deserves an answer, not an implied diagnosis of a psychological
problem.

					Frank

Now that I'm climbing off the soapbox, I hope no one in the audience
brought any rotten vegetables.