Re: Process hiding in linux

[peterw () USA NET (Peter W)]

At 11:44pm Mar 15, 2000, Pavel Machek wrote:

> /proc/pid allows strange tricks (2.3.49):

> pavel@bug:~/misc$ ps aux | grep grep
> Warning: /boot/System.map has an incorrect kernel version.
> Warning: /usr/src/linux/System.map has an incorrect kernel version.

... interesting bits about /proc/$PID/status interface and how having
an open filehandle to a defunct proc's status can hide info from ps ...

1) The 2.3.x series [like all N.M.x kernels where ((M % 2) == 1)] are
   development kernels, not for production use.

2) The 2.3.x development tree is up to 2.3.99-pre1, according to
   http://www.kernel.org/ (Granted, 2.3.49 was only superceded nine
   days ago, and 2.3.99-pre1 appears to really be 2.3.52, but that just
   goes to illustrate that this is a developers' alpha release.)

In other words, check it on the current code (and what's up with having
the wrong System.map installed?) and post to the linux kernel-dev mailing
list if the dev kernel seems to have a bug. If they ignore you and seem
happy to release what you believe to be a product with a security flaw,
let the world know.

-Peter

http://www.bastille-linux.org/ : working towards more secure Linux systems