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posted by Fnord666 on Monday July 03 2017, @10:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-a-feature dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

A bug in Linux's systemd init system causes root permissions to be given to services associated with invalid usernames, and while this could pose a security risk, exploitation is not an easy task.

A developer who uses the online moniker "mapleray" last week discovered a problem related to systemd unit files, the configuration files used to describe resources and their behavior. Mapleray noticed that a systemd unit file containing an invalid username – one that starts with a digit (e.g. "0day") – will initiate the targeted process with root privileges instead of regular user privileges.

Systemd is designed not to allow usernames that start with a numeric character, but Red Hat, CentOS and other Linux distributions do allow such usernames.

"It's systemd's parsing of the User= parameter that determines the naming doesn't follow a set of conventions, and decides to fall back to its default value, root," explained developer Mattias Geniar.

While this sounds like it could be leveraged to obtain root privileges on any Linux installation using systemd, exploiting the bug in an attack is not an easy task. Geniar pointed out that the attacker needs root privileges in the first place to edit the systemd unit file and use it.

[...] Systemd developers have classified this issue as "not-a-bug" and they apparently don't plan on fixing it. Linux users are divided on the matter – some believe this is a vulnerability that could pose a serious security risk, while others agree that a fix is not necessary.

See, this is why we can't have nice init systems.

Source: http://www.securityweek.com/linux-systemd-gives-root-privileges-invalid-usernames


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @10:20PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @10:20PM (#534592)

    So how does this affect Tor [client only] users?

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @10:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @10:45PM (#534597)

    You should only use Tor on Win10 then.

  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday July 04 2017, @02:50AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday July 04 2017, @02:50AM (#534653) Journal

    Don't use systemd. Don't use systemd unit files if you do anyway. And if you fucked up anyway, make sure you can trust your support programs (deamons).

    In other news, secret societies plan on removing the poettering bug with a flyswatt. It's the only way to be sure.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @05:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @05:01PM (#534837)

    why are you using tor?