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protocol "exec" should drop elevated privileges instead of suggesting to recompile to allow popen as root  #583

@jscheidtmann

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@jscheidtmann

Protocol "exec" denies to execute any programs, if running as root, see MeterExec.cpp - L123 ff. The option offered in the error message is to recompile vzlogger to allow this using a compile time configuration setting, that allows to call external programs as root.

Instead Exec should:

  • Drop elevated privileges, if executed as root, before running the external script.
  • Add a Username or UID parameter that specifies which uid to execute the command as in the configuration.
  • In addition popen uses the default shell, which seems to potentially be open for attacks (reading the cookbook cited below).

OR

  • at least recommend using protocol "exec" only when invoking vzlogger as a normal user.

Example code for dropping elevated privileges can be found in "Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++ by John Viega, Matt Messier", Recipes 1.3, 1.6, 1.7. (but I am not sure this fully applies).

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