Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!husc6!bloom-beacon!sunchat.UUCP!richb
From: richb@sunchat.UUCP (Rich Burridge)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Why is xterm suid root.
Message-ID: <8902191022.AA28931@sunchat.sun.oz>
Date: 20 Feb 89 02:17:52 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 40

Please reply directly to Ian Dall at the address below, or to the
comp.windows.x / xpert mailing list.

--- Forwarded mail from idall@augean.OZ (Ian Dall) 

From: idall@augean.OZ (Ian Dall)
Subject: Why is xterm suid root.
Message-Id: <453@augean.OZ>
Date: 16 Feb 89 03:04:16 GMT
Reply-To: idall@augean.OZ (Ian Dall)
Organization: Engineering Faculty, University of Adelaide, Australia

When X is installed, xterm gets its suid bit set by default. Also the
release notes advise you to check the suid bits on xterm.

When xterm has its suid bit set and I type xinit as root it works
fine, but if I type xinit as Joe_User the stipple pattern comes up,
but no X cursor or xterm window. If I turn OFF the xterm suid bit
Joe_User can xinit just fine and as far as I can tell everything works
properly.

Curiously, there is no problem if xterm is started from a .xinitrc file
instead of just using the default.

Why is xterm suid? As far as I can tell nothing breaks if it is NOT
suid and if it IS suid it sometimes doesn't work if the effective uid
is not equal to the real uid.

This is XV11R3 on a Sun 3/60 running Sun Os 3.5. /usr/bin/X11 points
to a NFS mounted partition which is mounted with suid as a file system
mount parameter. Turning the suid mount parameter off has exactly the
same effect as turning off the suid bit on the xterm file itself.

-- 
 Ian Dall           life (n). A sexually transmitted disease which afflicts
                              some people more severely than others.
idall@augean.oz


--- End of forwarded message from idall@augean.OZ (Ian Dall)