[comp.sys.sgi] IRIX 3.2: new directory blocks not zeroed?

ken@cs.toronto.edu (Ken Lalonde) (02/16/90)

Unused space in newly created directories under IRIX 3.2 appears to
contain data leftover from recently removed files.  When I run the
following a few times on two of our 4D machines and one PI (all with
/tmp on the root SCSI disk), the "cat -v foo" prints part of the passwd file.

	% cd /tmp
	% cp /etc/passwd .		# any large text file will do
	% rm passwd
	% mkdir foo
	% cat -v foo

Bad news if you care about filesystem security.

merritt@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov (John H Merritt) (02/16/90)

In article <90Feb15.191156est.6155@neat.cs.toronto.edu> ken@cs.toronto.edu (Ken Lalonde) writes:
>
>	% cd /tmp
>	% cp /etc/passwd .		# any large text file will do
>	% rm passwd
>	% mkdir foo
>	% cat -v foo
>
>Bad news if you care about filesystem security.

Poor example, but the point is illustrated.  I could not read
the Ex.... files that 'vi' uses with the above technique.  What I could
do was read part of someone elses (mode 600) file that was placed there
and removed.  So we need a deamon that sits in /tmp waiting for files
to be deleted :-),  How do we monitor /tmp files?  No! No! No! don't
answer this; this discussion showed up in comp.unix.wizards.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John H. Merritt                   #  Yesterday I knew nothing,
Applied Research Corporation      #  Today I know that.
merritt@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov     #

yohn@tumult.sgi.com (Mike Thompson) (02/17/90)

In article <90Feb15.191156est.6155@neat.cs.toronto.edu>, ken@cs.toronto.edu (Ken Lalonde) writes:
> Unused space in newly created directories under IRIX 3.2 appears to
> contain data leftover from recently removed files.  When I run the
> following a few times on two of our 4D machines and one PI (all with
> /tmp on the root SCSI disk), the "cat -v foo" prints part of the passwd file.
> 
> 	% cd /tmp
> 	% cp /etc/passwd .		# any large text file will do
> 	% rm passwd
> 	% mkdir foo
> 	% cat -v foo
> 
> Bad news if you care about filesystem security.

Yes, bad news.  This has been fixed in the next-release software.

Mike Thompson