cat /dev/urandom

[Lowell Gilbert]

Lane <lane at joeandlane.com> writes:

> On Tuesday 26 July 2005 17:35, Michael Beattie wrote:
> > On 7/26/05, Matt Juszczak <matt at atopia.net> wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > Quick question.
> > >
> > > shell# cat /dev/urandom
> > >
> > > can that executed as root cause any harm to the system?  What if a random
> > > sequence of `rm *` was generated... would it be executed?
> > >
> > > I tried that to fix my terminal and forgot it might cause damage as root,
> > > even if its just being cat'd to the screen.  I thought I saw some files
> > > fly by which would indicate an execution of `ls`....
> > >
> > > Just curious....
> >
> > If you had a file with an rm * in it and you cat'd it would it execute?
> > _______________________________________________
> That's a good answer, but what if the command was:
> 
> `cat /dev/urandom`
> 
> could /dev/urandom generate arbitrary and potentially executable code?

Sure.  It also might produce "Hamlet".