On Jan 14,  8:13am, Magnus Eriksson wrote:
} On Fri, 28 Sep 2007, John Nemeth wrote:
} 
} > }    Having a suid root program exploited to create the directory, or change
} > } the permissions of it -- *that* security problem.
} 
} >     If an suid root program can be exploited in such a way, it can
} > most likely cause all sorts of other problems.
} 
}    Maybe such a buggy program could, maybe not.  But are you then saying 
} that this particular hole should therefore *not* be fixed?
} 
}    Seems kinda obvious to me that when you see a potential security 
} problem, you fix it right away, no matter how unlikely it seems it might 
} be exploited.  That just the way you do things.

     Sure, but I think this is just being paranoid.  Only root can
setup those directories.  If anything else manages to do so, then
you're already screwed.

} > }    I don't know exactly in which "various default PATHs" /usr/local is
} >
} >    The ones in /etc/skel/*, which are the files used to populate a
} > user's home directory when you do 'useradd -m ...'.  Also, the ones in
} > /root/.*.
} 
}    So in the default PATH for all users?  Including root?  Wow.

     Yes.  See src/etc/{root,skel}/dot.{cshrc,profile}.
/usr/local/{,s}bin is at end of the path.

}-- End of excerpt from Magnus Eriksson