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Re: Security problem in ESRI's ArcDoc 7.0.4


From: svenw () sgu se (Sven.Wijk)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 11:05:48 +0200


*** GIS & ESRI/ARC/Info shops take note! ***

The program "fm_fls" as distributed with ESRI's "ArcDoc" package (7.0.4)
contains a bug which allows us to (a) add somewhat arbitrary data
to any file and (b) changes the permissions of that file to rw-rw-rw-.

The program doesn't seem to be there in the version we are running (7.0.2).
Downgrading might be an alternative solution. Please correct me if i'm wrong!

A quick search in the ArcInfo directories showed 4 other programs suid to root.
Do we have a potential for problems?

Our GIS-people earlier looked at ESRI's product ArcStorm. Its client-server
solution is built on:
  - a bunch of programs suid to root
  - the client must be trusted hosts to the server, by means of the /etc/.rhost
    or /etc/host.equiv file.
This made me very uneasy, and i finaly managed to get them to drop their
ArcStorm-dreams, and to search for some more security minded solution.
It seems that security isn't a high priority issue for ESRI's developers.

---
Sven.Wijk () sgu se



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