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Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:15:59 +0530
From: Huzaifa Sidhpurwala <huzaifas@...hat.com>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: radvd 1.8.2 released with security fixes

On 10/14/2011 12:21 AM, Solar Designer wrote:
> I am an outside observer here (I haven't reviewed the code myself), but
> doesn't the above amount to admin-configured privilege separation not
> actually being enabled?  If so, this sounds like a security issue to me.
>

I dont think so. From the code i have read so far, here is what seems to 
happen.

- radvd starts as root
- reads the configs
- if a username is specified (user=radvd in most cases):
	- if "--singleprocess" is not specified:
		- run privsep_init(): This forks another process which
		  runs as root. So after this point we have two
		  processes both running as root
		- If privsep_init() fails, we have just one process
		  running as root
	- run drop_root_privileges():
		If this succedes, we have two processes one running as
		root and another as radvd user, or if privsep_init()
		failed earlier, we have one process running as radvd
		user.
		If this fails, application quits
- If username was not specified radvd continues to run as a single 
process as root.


So failure in privsep_init() results in just one process running as 
radvd user. If it did not fail it would result in one process running as 
root and another as radvd user.

I dont think this would be a security issue in my opinion.




-- 
Huzaifa Sidhpurwala / Red Hat Security Response Team

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