michael@orlitzky.com wrote:
Full_Name: Michael Orlitzky Version: 2.4.45 OS: Gentoo URL: Submission from: (NULL) (98.218.46.55)
The slapd daemon should create its PID file before dropping privileges. This represents a minor security issue; additional factors are needed to make it exploitable.
Why?
The purpose of the PID file is to hold the PID of the running daemon, so that later it can be stopped, restarted, or otherwise signalled (many daemons reload their configurations in response to a SIGHUP). To fulfill that purpose, the contents of the PID file need to be trustworthy. If the PID file is writable by a non-root user, then he can replace its contents with the PID of a root process.
Not sure this is a valid concern. The uid used to run services should not actually have a valid login shell, and thus should not ever be usable for any purpose other than running the daemon from init.