Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 08:07:55 +0100 (MET)
From: Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@linux01.gwdg.de>
To: Natanael Copa <mlists@tanael.org>
cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: forkbombing Linux distributions
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>> >brings down almost all linux distro's while other *nixes survives.
>> 
>> Let's see if this can be confirmed.
>
>open/free/netbsd survives. I guess OSX does too.

Confirmed. My OpenBSD install copes very well with forkbombs.
However, I _was able_ to spawn a lot of shells by default.
The essence is that the number of processes/threads within
a _session group_ (correct word?) is limited. That way, you can
start a ton of "/bin/sh"s from one another, i.e.:

 \__ login jengelh
     \__ /bin/sh
         \__ /bin/sh
             \__ /bin/sh
...

So I think that if you add a setsid() to your forkbomb,
you could once again be able to bring a system - BSD this time - down.
Just a guess at this time, I would need to write a prog first :p


Jan Engelhardt
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