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Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 02:50:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: George Greer <greerga@m-l.org>
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To: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
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Subject: Re: Security question: "Text file busy" overwriting executables but
 not shared libraries?
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On Thu, 4 Oct 2001, Linus Torvalds wrote:

>Which is why the kernel only allows it when the binary loader itself
>sets the flag, because security-conscious application writers are
>already aware of the "oh, a running binary may not be writable" issues.

One of the methods I tried to use to stop a fork()-bomb was to zero the
executable in question to force it to crash. No such luck, reboot it was.
Not that I can think of any other useful application of said behavior.

-- 
George Greer, greerga@m-l.org
http://www.m-l.org/~greerga/

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