[linux-security] Re: Programming ...

[Glynn Clements <glynn sensei co uk>]

Zygo Blaxell wrote:

> Deleting files in /tmp (or a user's home directory, for that matter)
> is not a trivial operation from a security point of view.  You can't
> safely use "find" and "xargs"--or even "rm -rf"--unless you can guarantee
> that no users have write access to the directory tree in question
> (e.g. because the system is in single-user mode).

One of the linux-admin subscribers had a neat alternative for /tmp
cleaning, which I couldn't see any problems with. This involved
creating a statically-linked "rm" binary, and then doing e.g.

    cp ~/static-rm ~/rm     # installing the "rm" binary needs to be
    mv -f ~/rm /tmp/rm      # safe against symlink games
    cd /tmp
    chroot /tmp /rm -rf .

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn sensei co uk>