syslogd(8) Dropping Privs

From: Crist J. Clark (cristjc_at_comcast.net)
Date: 06/04/04

  • Next message: Neo-Vortex: "Re: syslogd(8) Dropping Privs" 
    Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 12:53:38 -0700
To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org

    I made a quick change to syslogd(8) so that it can drop root
    privileges immediately after starting up. It opens up the log
    sockets (UNIX and network domains) and writes the PID files
    before dropping privs. It drops privs before openning log
    files and writing to users. Therefore, you would need to
    modify your log file permissions appropriately. As for writing
    to users, ttys generally are writeable by group tty. The UID
    chosen to run syslogd as should be in this group if this feature
    is desired.

    We haven't had many syslogd(8) vulnerabilities lately, but one
    less daemon running as root seems like a Good Thing. I do not
    see any drawbacks from a security point of view. The log files
    would have to be owned, or otherwise writeable, by this other
    user, but so what. Obviously, I may be missing something.

    Any interest in this? Let me know if you try it out and any
    successes or failures.

    Patches! CURRENT and RELENG_4 version attached. The documentation
    is included as a patch to the syslogd(8) man page. 

    -- 
Crist J. Clark                     |     cjclark@alum.mit.edu
                                   |     cjclark@jhu.edu
http://people.freebsd.org/~cjc/    |     cjc@freebsd.org

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  • Next message: Neo-Vortex: "Re: syslogd(8) Dropping Privs"

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