HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ignatz@wam.umd.edu (Mark J. Sienkiewicz)
Subject: Re: Unkillable processes
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 22:05:14 GMT

In article <1992Aug26.180629.385@ctp.com> jmay@ctp.com (Jason May) writes:
>as root does not work.  I had formerly been under the impression
>that root kill -9 meant absolute instantaneous death, but apparently

That's not how it works.  What it means is that signal 9 can't be 
_caught_or_ignored_ by the process.

When you kill a process, you set a flag to tell that process which signal
you sent it.  When that process goes to run in user mode again, it looks
at this flag and kills itself.  So you don't kill it-- you ask it to kill
itself.

So when the process is writing a core file, you can't kill it-- it is
already dying.

>If these situations are not indicative of an OS bug, has anyone
>built up a list of conditions in which a process cannot be killed?

Anything that causes the process to spend a long time in kernel mode
will do this.  (This usually means it is waiting for something.)

Some examples: (most of these are not bugs)
Others have mentioned core files and closing sockets.  

Processes that are swapped out have to be swapped in before they can run
(and then die).

Processes that have such a low priority that they don't get to run
won't die right away either.

Some System V machines have something that looks like a race in the 
terminal driver, so that once in a while, you can have a process which
is unkillable because it is hung doing terminal IO.

Processes doing IO to tape drives (especially when they close a 
rewind-on-close device).

Anyway, you can probably think of bunches more-- just think "What could
make a process wait in kernel mode?"

Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: dbrillha@dave.mis.semi.harris.com (Dave Brillhart)
Subject: Re: Password Aging
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 12:46:04 GMT
Reply-To: dbrillha@dave.mis.semi.harris.com (Dave Brillhart)
Organization: Harris Semiconductor

The PERL-based passwd replacement (described in the PERL book and
available on the net) implements password aging by using a few bits
in the seed characters that start out the encrypted password. 

We use the utility and it works great. Besides password aging, you
get a terrific pro-active password checker - it will not allow
"easy" passwords (defined by you using REs and dictionaries). It
keeps you from having to run crack as often :-)

-
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 Dave Brillhart                              Harris Semiconductor
 dbrillha@dave.mis.semi.harris.com           Mail Stop 62A-024
 Voice: (407) 729-5430                       P.O. Box 883
 Fax:   (407) 724-7486                       Melbourne, FL 32902-0883
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.ultrix,comp.unix.wizards
From: hirai@cc.swarthmore.edu (Eiji Hirai)
Subject: Re: random passwd generator
Organization: Information Services, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, USA
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 18:52:00 GMT

ccksb@blaze.trentu.ca (Ken Brown) writes:
> I'm looking for a program which will generate 'n' number of passwords.

How about this minimalist program below.  You give a number as an argument
and it'll give you that many passwords, both in the original form and
encrypted form.  It tries to make the passwords be a pronounce-able word.

Hack and enjoy.

--
Eiji Hirai <hirai@cc.swarthmore.edu>    :     :    :   :  : :: ::: :::: :::::
Unix Hacker for Swarthmore College      :     :    :   :  : :: ::: :::: :::::
Information Services, Swarthmore, PA, USA.      Copyright 1992 by Eiji Hirai.
I don't speak for Swarthmore College.                    All Rights Reserved.

/* generate.c - generates encrypted strings for random passwords.  -eiji */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>

extern char	*crypt();

#define SALT	".."
#define LETTERS	26	/* number of letters in the English alphabet */

void	main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	int	howmany, numConsonant, numVowel, count, count2;
	char	password[16], consonant[LETTERS], vowel[LETTERS];

	if (argc != 2) {
		fprintf (stderr, "usage: %s howmany\n", argv[0]);
		exit (1);
	}

	howmany = atoi (argv[1]);
	srandom((int)(time((time_t *)0)));

	strcpy (consonant, "bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz");
	strcpy (vowel, "aeiou");
	numConsonant = strlen(consonant);
	numVowel = strlen(vowel);

	for (count = 0; count < howmany; count++)
	{
		strcpy (password, "");
		for (count2 = 0; count2 < 8; count2 += 2)
			password[count2] = consonant[random()%numConsonant];
		for (count2 = 1; count2 < 8; count2 += 2)
			password[count2] = vowel[random()%numVowel];
		for (count2 = 0; count2 < 8; count2 ++)
			if (!(random() % 3))
				password[count2] = password[count2] - 'a' + 'A';
		printf ("%s\t%s\n", password, crypt(password, SALT));
	}
}
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.large,comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.misc
From: kleine@fzi.de (Karl Kleine)
Subject: Re: Any clues about IBM mainframe tape conversions?
Reply-To: kleine@fzi.de
Organization: Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI), Karlsruhe, Germany
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 22:14:52 GMT

In article <1992Sep2.125218.11643@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>, kann@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Kirk M. Anne) writes:
|> We have been asked to decommission our IBM VM/CMS mainframe.  The committee
|> that is working on this project has asked me to find out what other sites
|> do with IBM mainframe tapes for UNIX systems.  I know that 'dd' will read
|> the tapes, but many of our users have SAS tapes that were created on CMS.
|> I would like to find some clues to the following questions:
|> 
|> 	What do you do when you get tapes from IBM sites?
|> 	What utilities do you use to convert tapes?
|> 	How do you handle SAS tapes created on CMS?
|> 	How do you handle multi-tape data sets?
|> 
|> I will post a summary of the clues that I receive.
|> 

There have been answers hinting aat using `ansitape', a well-known PD tape
program. Well, I wrote a utility 'slt' or 'sltape' also handling both ANSI
and IBM tapes. BUT: This is CMS (resp. VM370) and this is a completely
different system, with a different tape format. There is a PD program
'cmstape', which can handle CMS 'TAPE DUMP' archives. check archie!
I do not know, if this utility covers all formats and variants (the man
of my version says explicitly NO to the VMFPLC2 format), so take a close
look.  I have never seen anything about SAS tapes and manipulation of these
on UNIX systems.

Good luck!

-- 
Karl Kleine						email kleine@fzi.de
FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik			phone +49-721-9654-950
Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10-14, D-7500 Karlsruhe, Germany	fax   +49-721-9654-959
From: shani@GENIUS.TAU.AC.IL (Oren Shani)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: Prevent user from editing /etc/passwd
Date: 23 Aug 92 10:35:34 GMT
Organization: Tel Aviv University School of Math and CS, ISRAEL

In article <1992Aug17.131329.22491@cpp.ob.open.de> schweik@cpp.ob.open.de (Martin Schweikert) writes:
>Hi!
>
>I have a user on my SVR3 machine who knows - and must know :-( - the
>root password.
>
>I tried to find a method to prevent him from editing /etc/passwd. It's
>quite difficult.
>
>Martin

  There is no way, as far as I know, to prevent a root from editing a file. You
could write a program that will run vi, after it checked the user's real uid,
but that user could still, either login as root (If you don't prevent it, and
I think in SVR3 you can't), or simply run vi in the other name you gave it 
(which the wrapper program call it by).

  There are so many more reasons why a user shouldn't have root password, except
being able to edit /etc/password, that I think the best way is to try and manage
without letting him know it. If you tell us why he should know that password,
maybe people can come up with suggestions about how to avoid it.

-- 
    __    __  Oren Shani (shani@genius.tau.ac.il) 
   /  /  /    Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv university
  /  /   --   Israel
 /__/ . __/ . "Hold your temper" -- The caterpillar to Alice
From: jfh@rpp386.lonestar.org (John F. Haugh II)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: SECURITY -- How to list files having suid
Date: 26 Aug 92 12:46:02 GMT
Reply-To: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II)
Distribution: world,local
Organization: River Parishes Programming, Austin, Republic of Texas

In article <1992Aug25.171601.3629@arizona.edu> jjr@ace.ece.arizona.edu (Jeffrey J. Rodriguez) writes:
>I'd like to do a security check on my SPARCstation (SunOS 4.1.1).
>How can I list all files having suid or sgid set?
>With "find -perm" I can only check for exact matches of bits.
>I'd like to just check the suid & sgid bits and not check the
>other permission bits.

You aren't reading the find(1) manpage closely enough.  It is possible
to check single bits.  For example,

% find /bin -perm -4000 -print
/bin/ps
/bin/mkdir
/bin/df
/bin/disable
/bin/enable
/bin/passwd
/bin/su
/bin/rmdir
/bin/newgrp
/bin/ipcs
/bin/sg
/bin/renice
/bin/pstat
/bin/login
/bin/gpasswd
/bin/chfn
/bin/chsh
/bin/chage

>What other security checks should I perform?

Get a copy of COPS and run it.
-- 
John F. Haugh II                   | "The US Government has the Midas Muffler
Ma Bell: (512) 251-2151            |  touch: everything they touch turns to
UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh |  shit."
Domain: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org      |                  -- Jay Maynard
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: johnk@gordian.com (John Kalucki)
Subject: Re: Wrong records in routing table - where from?
Keywords: routing routed rip
Organization: Gordian; Costa Mesa, CA
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 02:30:07 GMT

In article <stritzi.715162158@Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE>, stritzi@Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Peer Stritzinger) writes:
>In a TCP/IP network I use routed in passive mode on all machines.
>
>When some machines are rebooted, the other machines routing table gets
>wrong records. How can I find out why?
>

Try running routed in debug mode. (-d -t I think. man routed will tell more).
It will print out all routes learned and advertised.

		-John Kalucki
		johnk@gordian.com
Xref: sparky comp.unix.admin:4841 comp.unix.questions:10642 comp.unix.shell:3770
From: spp@crane.cis.ufl.edu (Stephen Potter)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: How to prevent a large core-dump
Date: 2 Sep 92 15:38:13 GMT
Reply-To: spp@crane.cis.ufl.edu (Stephen Potter)
Followup-To: comp.unix.admin
Organization: U of Florida. Computer Science Dept.

In article <1992Aug25.173056.13401@utwente.nl>, soos@math.utwente.nl (Adwin Soos) writes:
|> Hello netters,
|> 
|> A few weeks or even months ago I have read some discussion about the problem
|> of preventing a core-dump. I remember that there were some suggestions on how
|> to prevent that a large core-dump will be made. 
|> This person is not using this core to debug it so maybe we can just stop the
|> creation of this core for this person.
|> Is there someone who can mail me such suggestions?
|> 
Assuming the person is using some form of csh, why not just place a limit on the 
coredump size....
Place this in the .cshrc:
limit coredumpsize 0

This will completely stop coredumps from being written.

-- 
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning.  The sea's asleep, and
the rivers dream.  People made of smoke and cities made of sound.  Somewhere
there's danger.  Somewhere there's injustice.  Somewhere else the tea's getting 
cold. 	Come on Ace, we've got work to do." -Dr Who, spp@cis.ufl.edu
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: chapin@ssvax.gte.com (Barry Chapin)
Subject: FTP without password or username?
Organization: GTE/SCSD
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 15:53:51 GMT

Hello all,

I have a pc running SCO Unix connected to a VAX running VMS with
Ultirx/VMS tcp/ip software.  I have 2 questions.  

1: Is there a way to ftp from the VAX to the pc, and not have the SCO
ftp program ask for a password?

I have some acounts setup on the SCO machine that do not have passwords.
I can telnet from the Vax to the pc, and no password is required, just a
username.  But when I ftp to the pc unix host, and enter the account
name which does not have a password, it asks me for a password anyways?
Is this a bug in the SCO ftp server?

2:  After an ftp connection has been established to the pc from the VAX,
can you 'put' a file with ftp directly to a floppy disk?  Such as this:
ftp> put somefile /dev/fd0/somefile
Do I need to specify /dev/rfd0 instead of /dev/fd0?  
How do I access this file on floppy once I am on the pc, after it has
been 'put' there.  What about 'get'ting a file from a floppy that has
just been inserted?

I question put-ting to a floppy, because it would not be mounted, as
would a filesystem on a partition of a hard disk, such as /usr.  How
would/does ftp 'save' the file to disk (ie: tar, cpio, etc???)  

You can email responses to CHAPIN%SCSD@GTE.COM
Thanks in advance.

-Barry Chapin
Software Engineer/Unix Systems Admin (SPARC/SCO)
GTE Government Systems
Waltham, MA  617-466-3464
 
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.sys.sun.admin
From: shanti@maxine.wpi.edu (Shanti Suresh)
Subject: Printer-Driver Help!
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 13:01:54 GMT


I have a ques.: I have an HP LaserJet Series II printer and postcript
files created using latex. I need to get a driver for the printer. 
I heard there is this 'newsprint' program sold by SUN that acts as
a driver for a number of printer types. By the way, I have a SUN Sparc
IPX machine here. 
I was wondering if someone knew about some public domain software
that handles the HP LaserJet Series II  printer only or one that drives
postcript printers in addition. If so, what is the FTP site? I might 
get another printer of a differnet type also.
Also, do I need a card to interface the LaserJet II
with Sun or would it suffice to directly connect the serial port of
the LaserJet II to that of the SUN?

Thanx for all help.

-Shanti

e-mail: shanti@maxine.wpi.edu
From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: Restricted shell
Date: 29 Aug 1992 01:54:06 GMT
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: gandalf.think.com

In article <1992Aug28.223743.3396@unixg.ubc.ca> andy@orchid.bdc.ubc.ca (Andrew Dwelly) writes:
>We are considering offering free accounts to the members of our dept.
>with a shell capable of executing only a few commands. We know
>about retsh, but it seems to have some trouble executing with SunOS
>4.1.2 

/usr/lib/rsh is the normal restricted shell in SunOS.
-- 
Barry Margolin
System Manager, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com          {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar
From: wrwalke@ddn-wms.nmi.com (William Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: x.25 negotiate packet/window on sun??
Keywords: x25 sun
Date: 31 Aug 92 19:03:20 GMT
Organization: Network Mgmt Inc., Fairfax, VA

has anyone gotten DDN connectivity with sunlink 7.0 x25
software??  it appears not to negotiate packet/window
sizes even though the documentation and config file say
that it does...

from what i understand, you must include packet and window 
defaults in a connection request in order to open negotiation...

bill.
-- 

Bill Walker  -  Network Analyst  -  Network Management Inc.
bill@nmi.com                        11242 Waples Mill Rd
wrwalke@ddn-wms.ddn.mil             Fairfax, VA  22030
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (System Admin (Mike Peterson))
Subject: Re: timed on hp-ux 8.0
Organization: University of Toronto Chemistry Department
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 17:51:01 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.125133.1@bugs.wrq.com> john@bugs.wrq.com writes:
>I am trying to setup timed to sincronize all of the computers at our site,
>but recently discovered that hp does not support timed.
>
>If you have any experiance porting timed to hp-ux please email me that info.

I recently submitted a working timed into the InterWorks library
(iworks.ecn.uiowa.edu), but I don't know if my version has been
put into the public distribution area yet. The previous version
would appear to work until the system got active, or a few logins
had occurred.
-- 
What are the chances that any computer system will ever "work" properly?
... and Slim just left town. -*- Mike Peterson, SysAdmin, U/Toronto Chemistry
Xref: sparky comp.unix.admin:4778 comp.unix.wizards:3744
From: jfh@rpp386.lonestar.org (John F. Haugh II)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: How do I remove a directory with no parent?
Date: 30 Aug 92 15:33:18 GMT
Reply-To: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II)
Organization: River Parishes Programming, Austin, Republic of Texas

In article <1992Aug29.151128.3376@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> bjones@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (William A Jones) writes:
>I just recently installed smail v3.1.25 on my system (i486 running linux 0.97)
>and during the installation process, the directory /usr/local/lib/smail/methods
>was created.  However, there is absolutely nothing in the directory -- no
>., no .., no nothing.  fsck kindly points this out but hasn't done anything
>to fix it.  rmdir, rm -rf, rm -d all don't work.  I tried removing the entire
>directory tree doing an "rm -rf /usr/local/lib/smail" but that doesn't work.

If you have /etc/unlink, use that.  If you don't have /etc/unlink, compile
this small program as /etc/unlink -
--
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>

main (int argc, char **argv)
{
	if (argc != 2) {
		fprintf (stderr, "usage: unlink file\n");
		exit (1);
	}
	if (unlink (argv[1])) {
		perror (argv[1]);
		exit (errno);
	}
	exit (0);
}
-- 
John F. Haugh II                   | "The US Government has the Midas Muffler
Ma Bell: (512) 251-2151            |  touch: everything they touch turns to
UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh |  shit."
Domain: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org      |                  -- Jay Maynard
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.sysv386
From: barr@pop.psu.edu (David Barr)
Subject: Re: yp (nis) map changes - how do they happen
Keywords: passwd yp nis
Organization: Penn State Population Research Institute
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 22:28:03 GMT

In article <lee.715021798@ceg.uiuc.edu> lee@ceg.uiuc.edu (Chris Lee) writes:
>brian@ilinx.wimsey.bc.ca (Brian J. Murrell") writes:
>On the NIS Master, when you types yppasswd, you are prompted for the old
>NIS password (which you type), and then prompted for the new password
>(twice to check, of course).  This is not a problem.  However, on some
>of the clients, when you type yppasswd, you get "permission denied"
>in spite of the fact that EVERYTHING seems to be there (yes, ypwhich 
>does return the master server, and the passwd file has the entry
>+: blahblahblah).  

Is yppasswd setuid root?  (It needs to be)  Or are you mounting the
filesystem on which yppasswd is with 'nosuid'?

>On some others, you can type garbage at the old NIS
>password prompt and proceed to the new password prompts, tho if the old
>one is incorrect, you can't change the password.  Anyone with an ounce
>of common sense would think that if you mistype the old password, the
>password process would exit...unless this is a security feature (...but
>on the master, if you mistype the old password, it does exit...).

That's because with yppasswd, it is all done at once with one RPC call
after you type the new password.  In other words, the yppasswd client
finds out the old password, and confirms the new password.  It then
sends both passwords to the yp master's rpc.yppasswdd, who confirms
the old password with its copy and updates the password file if they
match.  It then returns wether or not it was successful.

It's probably different on the master because your /etc/password
file on there is the master password file, and thus can do a
"local" password style change.

--Dave
-- 
System Administrator, Population Research Institute    barr@pop.psu.edu
  One is the loneliest number.
  Two is as lonely as one, just shifted to the left.
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: Tom Christiansen <tchrist@convex.COM>
Subject: Re: SECURITY -- How to list files having suid
Originator: tchrist@pixel.convex.com
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 22:23:40 GMT
Distribution: world,local
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Colorado Springs, CO
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

From the keyboard of barr@pop.psu.edu (David Barr):
:In article <1992Aug27.181633.6131@odin.corp.sgi.com> trant@sgi.com writes:
:>I like COPS also, but.
:>find / -user root -perm -4000 -exec ls -l {} \; | mail trant
:
:or even better:
:
:find / -user root -perm -4000 -ls | mail trant
:
:(are there find's that don't have the '-ls' option?)

Sadly.

If you're on such a system, and you have perl, you can do this:

    find2perl / -user root -perm -4000 -ls | perl

--tom
-- 
    Tom Christiansen      tchrist@convex.com      convex!tchrist

    "* Unix is a footnote of AT&T Bell Laboratories."
                             --Barry Shein
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
From: tony@citr.uq.oz.au (Tony Ashburner)
Subject: Tivoli's Wizdom
Organization: Prentice Centre, University of Queensland
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 05:00:20 GMT

I am looking for information on a product called WizDOM from
Tivoli Systems Inc.  I know it has been selected as part of
OSF's DME, and I'm aware (in broad terms) of its functionality
in that role.

I would appreciate any comments from users of the product, or
any pointers to further information.

A contact in Tivoli Systems would also be nice ...

Tony Ashburner

tony@citr.uq.oz.au
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Zander                                  | email: 
Centre for Information Technology Research     | andrew@citr.uq.oz.au
University of Queensland  QLD  4072  AUSTRALIA | 
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.sys.hp,ctp.it
From: jmay@ctp.com (Jason May)
Subject: Unkillable processes
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 18:06:29 GMT
Organization: Cambridge Technology Partners


HP 9000/847, running HPUX 8.02.

From time to time, I see processes that get into such a state in
which they cannot be killed.  By 'cannot', I mean that kill -9
as root does not work.  I had formerly been under the impression
that root kill -9 meant absolute instantaneous death, but apparently
this is not the case (or there are some serious bugs).

One case is when a process crashes and is attempting to write
out a large core file across the network (eg. to a remote-mounted
NFS partition).  Under the coredump is finished, the process won't
die.  Another case appears to have something to do with sockets;
the process won't die while it thinks it has active remote
connections.

If these situations are not indicative of an OS bug, has anyone
built up a list of conditions in which a process cannot be killed?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated,
- Jason (jmay@ctp.com)