Security issue with .desktop files revisited

[Liam R E Quin]

On Tue, 2006-03-28 at 14:57 +0200, Joerg Barfurth wrote:

>  From Solaris man-pages:
> 
> chmod(1):
>       [...] Only  the  super-user  may
>       set  the sticky bit on a non-directory file.
[...]

> So neither does this bit have no effect, nor can it be set by ordinary 
> users.
> 
> I'd assume other Unixes with a common ancestor would behave similarly.

Right, although the effect changes between systems.  In V7 Unix the
sticky bit on an executable meant it was kept in physical memory and
never swapped out; at one point on SunOS the sticky bit enabled
read-ahead for text files I think, too.  In either case it changed
the behaviour of the virtual memory system, and hence could only
be set by root.

With the introduction of demand paging, Unix systems reinterpreted
the sticky bit, but all differently.

Liam


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