[MPlayer-users] Setuid root mplayer

[Haas Wernfried]

On Wed, Aug 28, 2002 at 12:30:23PM +0200, Davide Decicco wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> Is someone able to explain me (or point me to some useful resource on the
> web) why setuid root mplayer is a security risk ? How can one gain root
> privileges through it ?
> Thanks.
correct me if i'm wrong, i'm not really an expert.
setuid root means, that this file has not only the owner root, but that
it is also executed with user=root. this is useful if you need to do things
only root is allowed to do (e.g. use some special devices (some cd-burning
apps), use some things to get more processor power (mpg123 --aggressive), 
etc). as this program runs with root privileges it can do everything - read,
delete and alter quite every file on the system.
in this case mplayer -dvd 1 -dumpfile /boot/bzImage could do some damage.
of course mplayer (or any other software) could/should check, if the user
is allowed to do that...
another thing is: software that is designed to run as root is usually designed
safer than software that is designed not to run as root but runs with setuid
root ;) so small security holes in applications that run as root also give
root access.

maybe some things are not quite accurrate, but the essence still is:
running programs as setuid root is usually a bad idea

regards
	wernfried



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