pt_chown

[Geoff Keating]

> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 10:30:10 -0500
> From: Mark Kettenis <kettenis@gnu.org>
> 
> PR 1046 reports a security problem in pt_chown (for which I'll send a
> patch later today).  The author also questions the use of argument
> parsing and localisation in the program.  I tend to disagree with him
> since the argp and gettext code should be safe to use in a setuid
> program (actually using it in pt_chown might help us catching bugs).
> But since I wrote big parts of the code I may not be very impartial in
> this matter.  Does any of us have an opinion on the issue.

su(1) uses gettext and getopt_long from glibc.  Certainly, gettext
must be safe in setuid programs.  I don't see why argp should be
considered to be less safe than getopt_long, and I'd expect it's
already used in privileged code.

-- 
Geoffrey Keating <geoffk@ozemail.com.au>