From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: bug#30912: emacs as a route to privilege escalation Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:15:28 -0400 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1521915946 13206 195.159.176.226 (24 Mar 2018 18:25:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2018 18:25:46 +0000 (UTC) Cc: 30912@debbugs.gnu.org, beebe@math.utah.edu To: Lars Ingebrigtsen Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Mar 24 19:25:41 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1eznrG-0003HF-K4 for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 19:25:38 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:46819 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ezntJ-00051h-Vj for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:27:46 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:40217) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eznsA-0006kO-O1 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:27:40 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eznqg-00018w-FU for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:26:08 -0400 Original-Received: from debbugs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.43]:43827) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eznqg-00018p-Cj for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:25:02 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-debbugs by debbugs.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1eznqg-0005tD-4D for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:25:02 -0400 X-Loop: help-debbugs@gnu.org Resent-From: Richard Stallman Original-Sender: "Debbugs-submit" Resent-CC: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Resent-Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2018 18:25:02 +0000 Resent-Message-ID: Resent-Sender: help-debbugs@gnu.org X-GNU-PR-Message: followup 30912 X-GNU-PR-Package: emacs X-GNU-PR-Keywords: security wontfix notabug Original-Received: via spool by 30912-submit@debbugs.gnu.org id=B30912.152191586022590 (code B ref 30912); Sat, 24 Mar 2018 18:25:02 +0000 Original-Received: (at 30912) by debbugs.gnu.org; 24 Mar 2018 18:24:20 +0000 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:51724 helo=debbugs.gnu.org) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1eznq0-0005sH-9p for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:24:20 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:59435) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1eznpy-0005s3-3W for 30912@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:24:18 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eznoo-00007s-T2 for 30912@debbugs.gnu.org; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:24:12 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:60707) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eznhR-0004Ho-AE; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:15:29 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1eznhQ-0000Cr-Th; Sat, 24 Mar 2018 14:15:28 -0400 In-reply-to: (message from Lars Ingebrigtsen on Fri, 23 Mar 2018 00:57:49 +0100) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Spam-Score: -5.0 (-----) X-BeenThere: debbugs-submit@debbugs.gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list X-Spam-Score: -5.0 (-----) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 208.118.235.43 X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "bug-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:144579 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > It seems to be pure nonsense. You can't edit root's ~/.emacs without > root privilege. In principle, that should be the case, but sometimes it isn't. Basically, it is true if the kernel has no bugs. However, the kernel often does have a bug which can be used for "privilege escalation." When such an exploit is available, problems in user programs can be used to take control of the computer. But this does not require a add-on. Bugs in programs that display files obtained over the web, even files that are not supposed to contain code at all, can be used to do this. It is a real problem. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org) Skype: No way! See https://stallman.org/skype.html.