cvs commit: src UPDATING

Robert Watson rwatson at FreeBSD.org
Sat Dec 13 18:02:51 PST 2003


On Sat, 13 Dec 2003, Brooks Davis wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 13, 2003 at 04:42:01PM -0800, Robert Watson wrote:
> > rwatson     2003/12/13 16:42:01 PST
> > 
> >   FreeBSD src repository
> > 
> >   Modified files:
> >     .                    UPDATING 
> >   Log:
> >   Comment on initgroups.c:1.8: it can prevent users from logging in if
> >   a user has over 16 groups defined.
> >   
> >   Reported by:    "Klaus-J. Wolf" <yanestra at web.de>
> 
> A similar change is needed in 4.x or the change should be backed there. 
> I think we should back it out (in stable) until the various users of
> initgroups are fixed to output something useful and, preferably, not
> exit when this happens.  As it is, we turned an rarely hit edge case
> that was somewhat difficult to debug into a fatal error that that is
> about equally difficult to debug and breaks the account in question. 

Sigh.  I agree.  I didn't realize the MFC had happened, but sure enough,
it's change 1.3.8.2.  I have somewhat mixed feelings: I feel strongly we
should generate an error and fail closed, but I also agree that the
transition period was too short (we should have a warning period on the
-STABLE branch), and that we need to do something about error handling.
I'm surprised more people haven't bumped into it, but I guess the MFC was
only a couple of days ago.

Robert N M Watson             FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects
robert at fledge.watson.org      Senior Research Scientist, McAfee Research




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