getuid() vs. geteuid() in auditctl
Steve Grubb
sgrubb at redhat.com
Tue Mar 20 18:07:46 UTC 2012
On Friday, March 16, 2012 05:50:56 PM Peter Moody wrote:
> line 1162 in auditctl.c has this:
>
> #ifndef DEBUG
> /* Make sure we are root */
> if (getuid() != 0) {
> fprintf(stderr, "You must be root to run this program.\n");
> return 4;
> }
> #endif
>
> Is there any particular reason to use getuid() there as opposed to
> geteuid()?
I suppose it doesn't matter. I never envisioned having a helper application, so
that why its the way it is. Since we are optionally linking in libcap-ng, I
suppose we could even check the capability rather than the euid. Also note that
for certification purposes the file permissions are restricted.
-Steve
> In my particular case, we have a setuid helper that allows
> a normal user to run 'auditctl -l' (with a clean environment), and
> this prevents the setuid helper from working.
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