[comp.sys.att] 3b1: files winding up in the w

brad@bradley.UUCP (12/01/87)

/* Written  2:07 am  Nov 24, 1987 by lenny@icus.UUCP in bradley:comp.sys.att */
>>This is a problem with the system manager (smgr) which controls the
>>MAIL ICON at the top of the screen.  If you save your mail after clicking
>>on the icon, it indeed goes in /etc/lddrv/mbox, this is a *BUG* not
>>a system problem.  A while back I reported doing a "shell" escape "!" from
>>inside mail from the icon, will give your root access.  This is a pretty
>>bad security flaw, since smgr runs as a root process.  This can be
>>fixed I believe by renaming "/bin/mail" with "/bin/lmail" and writing
>>a short program that will do a:
>>
>>	setuid(getuid());
>>	setgid(getgid());
>>
>>and then exec "/bin/lmail".
This doesn't work as smgr runs as root. What I do is look at /etc/utmp (or
is it /etc/wtmp) and find out who is logged into /dev/w1, then using the
login name look up the uid in /etc/passwd and use this.  Multiple gettys
will read the mail of who every is logged into /dev/w1 (note that /dev/tty???
doesn't have this happen to it).