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    Thank you Jim. <br>
    <br>
    I'm incomprehending at to why such was instigated to begin with&nbsp; :-{<br>
    <br>
    Cordially,<br>
    <br>
    Courtney<br>
    <br>
    <br>
    On 02/08/12 08:43, Jim Kinney wrote:
    <blockquote
cite="mid:CAEo=5Pw_m6oSdepuSn7kPyBuGe6QW_C0=pSh2EVJBGdyBDt+xA@mail.gmail.com"
      type="cite">
      <p>To sum up, /proc is not a place where humans write. It is
        literally a view into kernel processes.<br>
        There are some runtime variables that can be tweaked by admins.
        For most situations these are best handled by sysctl. Most, if
        not all of these, have been relocated to /sys (or I have this
        all wrong and backwards between sys and proc).</p>
      <div class="gmail_quote">On Feb 7, 2012 6:51 PM, "Michael H.
        Warfield" &lt;<a moz-do-not-send="true"
          href="mailto:mhw@wittsend.com">mhw@wittsend.com</a>&gt; wrote:<br
          type="attribution">
        <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
          .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
          On Tue, 2012-02-07 at 11:46 -0500, Courtney Thomas wrote:<br>
          &gt; Jim,<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; As always.... thanks for your reply.<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; You were correct that kvm was apparently attempting to
          write to /proc~.<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; The puzzle for me is that... there is no /proc/~/mem to
          which to write,<br>
          &gt; but... apparently this is not permissible by design, as
          I'm not allowed<br>
          &gt; to change /proc's 555 permissions.<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; Can /proc's permissions be changed from 555 to, say, 755,
          and if so how;<br>
          &gt; for when I attempt this I get the error that "this is not
          supported" ? I<br>
          &gt; must say, though, that /proc is the only subdir in it's
          dir whose<br>
          &gt; permissions are not set 755.<br>
          <br>
          It will not help. &nbsp;/proc/.../mem is special and there was
          recently a<br>
          security advisory on how it was handled in 2.6.29 and above
          (2.6.26 if<br>
          you are on RedHat 6.2 / CentOS 6.2 / SL 6.2). &nbsp;Permission to
          write<br>
          to /proc/.../mem was only recently enabled at all and then
          restricted to<br>
          some very specific circumstances (self and certain tracing /
          debugging<br>
          functions). &nbsp;Unfortunately, the handling of those
          circumstances proved<br>
          to be flawed resulting in an escalation of privilege by a
          local user on<br>
          the system, which Linus then quickly fixed.<br>
          <br>
          <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=e268337dfe26dfc7efd422a804dbb27977a3cccc"
            target="_blank">http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=e268337dfe26dfc7efd422a804dbb27977a3cccc</a><br>
          <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223675/Linux_vendors_rush_to_patch_privilege_escalation_flaw_after_root_exploits_emerge"
            target="_blank">http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223675/Linux_vendors_rush_to_patch_privilege_escalation_flaw_after_root_exploits_emerge</a><br>
          <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0052.html"
            target="_blank">https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2012-0052.html</a><br>
          <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/cve/CVE-2012-0056.html"
            target="_blank">https://www.redhat.com/security/data/cve/CVE-2012-0056.html</a><br>
          <br>
          In kernel space, we do not honor permissions, we enforce them.
          &nbsp;If the<br>
          code path says "if foo then return error = EPERM" your screwed
          no matter<br>
          what you set the permissions to.<br>
          <br>
          If you want to read a really detailed analysis of what it
          takes to<br>
          exploit this and just how convoluted these exploits can be you
          can check<br>
          out this blog posting here (includes a link to proof of
          concept exploit<br>
          code)...<br>
          <br>
          <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://blog.zx2c4.com/749"
            target="_blank">http://blog.zx2c4.com/749</a><br>
          <br>
          &gt; More mystifyingly... there are other entries that ARE
          written to in<br>
          &gt; /proc's subdirs. Huh ? I assumed, apparently wrongly,
          that if a dir's<br>
          &gt; permissions disallowed writing, then it's subdirs would
          also not allow<br>
          &gt; writing.<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; I am also disallowed from changing proc's 'chown'.<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; Finally, when I - &nbsp;cat /proc/version - &nbsp;I get that Linux
          is version<br>
          &gt; 2.6.16. Does this tell you anything ?<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; Bedazzled and befuddled, as usual &nbsp;:-)<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; Courtney<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; On 02/06/12 19:27, Jim Kinney wrote:<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; The first looks like kvm thinks it should be doing
          something. If you<br>
          &gt; &gt; aren't running a kvm based server, disable kvm.<br>
          &gt; &gt; The sendmail issue os literally the daemon can't
          write the file.<br>
          &gt; &gt; Either disk full or permission error. &nbsp;For unknown
          reasons sometimes<br>
          &gt; &gt; the var/mail becomes not gtoup writeable. A perm
          change fixed it and<br>
          &gt; &gt; it didn't reappear.<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; On Feb 6, 2012 1:13 PM, "Courtney Thomas"<br>
          &gt; &gt; &lt;<a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="mailto:courtneycthomas@bellsouth.net">courtneycthomas@bellsouth.net</a>
          &lt;mailto:<a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="mailto:courtneycthomas@bellsouth.net">courtneycthomas@bellsouth.net</a>&gt;&gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; wrote:<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; What is the significance of this error which is
          regularly appearing in<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; /var/log/messages along with.....<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; kvm_getenvv<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; failed ?<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; This is apparently aroused by gnome's
          "console-kit-daemon"<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp;
______________________________________________________________________________________________<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; I'm also getting what I assume is a sendmail
          complaint as follows:<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; sm-mta cannot write .q###############:
          permission denied.<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; How can I resolve this as well, pleasely,<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; C.Thomas<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; _______________________________________________<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; Ale mailing list<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a> &lt;mailto:<a
            moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a>&gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale"
            target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br>
          &gt; &gt; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt;<br>
          &gt; &gt; _______________________________________________<br>
          &gt; &gt; Ale mailing list<br>
          &gt; &gt; <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br>
          &gt; &gt; <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale"
            target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>
          &gt; &gt; See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br>
          &gt; &gt; <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt;<br>
          &gt; _______________________________________________<br>
          &gt; Ale mailing list<br>
          &gt; <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br>
          &gt; <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale"
            target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>
          &gt; See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br>
          &gt; <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><br>
          <br>
          --<br>
          Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="tel:%28770%29%20985-6132" value="+17709856132">(770)
            985-6132</a> | &nbsp;<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:mhw@WittsEnd.com">mhw@WittsEnd.com</a><br>
          &nbsp; /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/ &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;| <a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="tel:%28678%29%20463-0932" value="+16784630932">(678)
            463-0932</a> | &nbsp;<a moz-do-not-send="true"
            href="http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/" target="_blank">http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/</a><br>
          &nbsp; NIC whois: MHW9 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;| An optimist believes we live in
          the best of all<br>
          &nbsp;PGP Key: 0x674627FF &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;| possible worlds. &nbsp;A pessimist is
          sure of it!<br>
          <br>
          _______________________________________________<br>
          Ale mailing list<br>
          <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br>
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          <br>
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      <pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
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</pre>
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