Re: linux has added "close on exec" flags to lots of fd calls

[Ignatios Souvatzis <is%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Mon, Aug 04, 2008 at 01:25:26PM -0400, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:42:54 -0400
> "Perry E. Metzger" <perry%piermont.com@localhost> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Linux seems to be adding lots of flags to things like "open" to set
> > close on exec from the time an fd is born. They claim this helps with
> > security. I'm not sure I believe that,
> 
> I do -- I've seen this failure fairly often, though not as much in
> recent years.  It was more common in the days before window systems
> (and especially before job control), when lots of programs had shell
> escapes.  Even adventure(6) had one.

Didn't know that - although I was a regular user of the nethack "mailer 
daemon" feature, even back then when the mailer daemon was a 2.

        -is
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