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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
3 | perlsec - Perl security |
4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
6 | |
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7 | Perl is designed to make it easy to program securely even when running |
8 | with extra privileges, like setuid or setgid programs. Unlike most |
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9 | command line shells, which are based on multiple substitution passes on |
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10 | each line of the script, Perl uses a more conventional evaluation scheme |
11 | with fewer hidden snags. Additionally, because the language has more |
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12 | builtin functionality, it can rely less upon external (and possibly |
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13 | untrustworthy) programs to accomplish its purposes. |
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14 | |
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15 | Perl automatically enables a set of special security checks, called I<taint |
16 | mode>, when it detects its program running with differing real and effective |
17 | user or group IDs. The setuid bit in Unix permissions is mode 04000, the |
18 | setgid bit mode 02000; either or both may be set. You can also enable taint |
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19 | mode explicitly by using the B<-T> command line flag. This flag is |
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20 | I<strongly> suggested for server programs and any program run on behalf of |
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21 | someone else, such as a CGI script. Once taint mode is on, it's on for |
22 | the remainder of your script. |
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23 | |
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24 | While in this mode, Perl takes special precautions called I<taint |
25 | checks> to prevent both obvious and subtle traps. Some of these checks |
26 | are reasonably simple, such as verifying that path directories aren't |
27 | writable by others; careful programmers have always used checks like |
28 | these. Other checks, however, are best supported by the language itself, |
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29 | and it is these checks especially that contribute to making a set-id Perl |
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30 | program more secure than the corresponding C program. |
31 | |
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32 | You may not use data derived from outside your program to affect |
33 | something else outside your program--at least, not by accident. All |
34 | command line arguments, environment variables, locale information (see |
35 | L<perllocale>), results of certain system calls (readdir, readlink, |
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36 | the gecos and shell fields of getpw* calls), and all file input are |
37 | marked as "tainted". Tainted data may not be used directly or |
38 | indirectly in any command that invokes a sub-shell, nor in any command |
39 | that modifies files, directories, or processes. (B<Important |
40 | exception>: If you pass a list of arguments to either C<system> or |
41 | C<exec>, the elements of that list are B<NOT> checked for |
42 | taintedness.) Any variable set to a value derived from tainted data |
43 | will itself be tainted, even if it is logically impossible for the |
44 | tainted data to alter the variable. Because taintedness is associated |
45 | with each scalar value, some elements of an array can be tainted and |
46 | others not. |
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47 | |
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48 | For example: |
49 | |
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50 | $arg = shift; # $arg is tainted |
51 | $hid = $arg, 'bar'; # $hid is also tainted |
52 | $line = <>; # Tainted |
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53 | $line = <STDIN>; # Also tainted |
54 | open FOO, "/home/me/bar" or die $!; |
55 | $line = <FOO>; # Still tainted |
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56 | $path = $ENV{'PATH'}; # Tainted, but see below |
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57 | $data = 'abc'; # Not tainted |
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58 | |
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59 | system "echo $arg"; # Insecure |
60 | system "/bin/echo", $arg; # Secure (doesn't use sh) |
61 | system "echo $hid"; # Insecure |
62 | system "echo $data"; # Insecure until PATH set |
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63 | |
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64 | $path = $ENV{'PATH'}; # $path now tainted |
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65 | |
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66 | $ENV{'PATH'} = '/bin:/usr/bin'; |
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67 | delete @ENV{'IFS', 'CDPATH', 'ENV', 'BASH_ENV'}; |
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68 | |
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69 | $path = $ENV{'PATH'}; # $path now NOT tainted |
70 | system "echo $data"; # Is secure now! |
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71 | |
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72 | open(FOO, "< $arg"); # OK - read-only file |
73 | open(FOO, "> $arg"); # Not OK - trying to write |
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74 | |
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75 | open(FOO,"echo $arg|"); # Not OK, but... |
76 | open(FOO,"-|") |
77 | or exec 'echo', $arg; # OK |
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78 | |
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79 | $shout = `echo $arg`; # Insecure, $shout now tainted |
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80 | |
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81 | unlink $data, $arg; # Insecure |
82 | umask $arg; # Insecure |
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83 | |
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84 | exec "echo $arg"; # Insecure |
85 | exec "echo", $arg; # Secure (doesn't use the shell) |
86 | exec "sh", '-c', $arg; # Considered secure, alas! |
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87 | |
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88 | @files = <*.c>; # insecure (uses readdir() or similar) |
89 | @files = glob('*.c'); # insecure (uses readdir() or similar) |
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90 | |
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91 | If you try to do something insecure, you will get a fatal error saying |
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92 | something like "Insecure dependency" or "Insecure $ENV{PATH}". Note that you |
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93 | can still write an insecure B<system> or B<exec>, but only by explicitly |
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94 | doing something like the "considered secure" example above. |
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95 | |
96 | =head2 Laundering and Detecting Tainted Data |
97 | |
98 | To test whether a variable contains tainted data, and whose use would thus |
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99 | trigger an "Insecure dependency" message, check your nearby CPAN mirror |
100 | for the F<Taint.pm> module, which should become available around November |
101 | 1997. Or you may be able to use the following I<is_tainted()> function. |
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102 | |
103 | sub is_tainted { |
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104 | return ! eval { |
105 | join('',@_), kill 0; |
106 | 1; |
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107 | }; |
108 | } |
109 | |
110 | This function makes use of the fact that the presence of tainted data |
111 | anywhere within an expression renders the entire expression tainted. It |
112 | would be inefficient for every operator to test every argument for |
113 | taintedness. Instead, the slightly more efficient and conservative |
114 | approach is used that if any tainted value has been accessed within the |
115 | same expression, the whole expression is considered tainted. |
116 | |
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117 | But testing for taintedness gets you only so far. Sometimes you have just |
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118 | to clear your data's taintedness. The only way to bypass the tainting |
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119 | mechanism is by referencing subpatterns from a regular expression match. |
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120 | Perl presumes that if you reference a substring using $1, $2, etc., that |
121 | you knew what you were doing when you wrote the pattern. That means using |
122 | a bit of thought--don't just blindly untaint anything, or you defeat the |
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123 | entire mechanism. It's better to verify that the variable has only good |
124 | characters (for certain values of "good") rather than checking whether it |
125 | has any bad characters. That's because it's far too easy to miss bad |
126 | characters that you never thought of. |
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127 | |
128 | Here's a test to make sure that the data contains nothing but "word" |
129 | characters (alphabetics, numerics, and underscores), a hyphen, an at sign, |
130 | or a dot. |
131 | |
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132 | if ($data =~ /^([-\@\w.]+)$/) { |
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133 | $data = $1; # $data now untainted |
134 | } else { |
135 | die "Bad data in $data"; # log this somewhere |
136 | } |
137 | |
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138 | This is fairly secure because C</\w+/> doesn't normally match shell |
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139 | metacharacters, nor are dot, dash, or at going to mean something special |
140 | to the shell. Use of C</.+/> would have been insecure in theory because |
141 | it lets everything through, but Perl doesn't check for that. The lesson |
142 | is that when untainting, you must be exceedingly careful with your patterns. |
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143 | Laundering data using regular expression is the I<only> mechanism for |
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144 | untainting dirty data, unless you use the strategy detailed below to fork |
145 | a child of lesser privilege. |
146 | |
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147 | The example does not untaint $data if C<use locale> is in effect, |
148 | because the characters matched by C<\w> are determined by the locale. |
149 | Perl considers that locale definitions are untrustworthy because they |
150 | contain data from outside the program. If you are writing a |
151 | locale-aware program, and want to launder data with a regular expression |
152 | containing C<\w>, put C<no locale> ahead of the expression in the same |
153 | block. See L<perllocale/SECURITY> for further discussion and examples. |
154 | |
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155 | =head2 Switches On the "#!" Line |
156 | |
157 | When you make a script executable, in order to make it usable as a |
158 | command, the system will pass switches to perl from the script's #! |
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159 | line. Perl checks that any command line switches given to a setuid |
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160 | (or setgid) script actually match the ones set on the #! line. Some |
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161 | Unix and Unix-like environments impose a one-switch limit on the #! |
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162 | line, so you may need to use something like C<-wU> instead of C<-w -U> |
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163 | under such systems. (This issue should arise only in Unix or |
164 | Unix-like environments that support #! and setuid or setgid scripts.) |
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165 | |
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166 | =head2 Cleaning Up Your Path |
167 | |
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168 | For "Insecure C<$ENV{PATH}>" messages, you need to set C<$ENV{'PATH'}> to a |
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169 | known value, and each directory in the path must be non-writable by others |
170 | than its owner and group. You may be surprised to get this message even |
171 | if the pathname to your executable is fully qualified. This is I<not> |
172 | generated because you didn't supply a full path to the program; instead, |
173 | it's generated because you never set your PATH environment variable, or |
174 | you didn't set it to something that was safe. Because Perl can't |
175 | guarantee that the executable in question isn't itself going to turn |
176 | around and execute some other program that is dependent on your PATH, it |
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177 | makes sure you set the PATH. |
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178 | |
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179 | The PATH isn't the only environment variable which can cause problems. |
180 | Because some shells may use the variables IFS, CDPATH, ENV, and |
181 | BASH_ENV, Perl checks that those are either empty or untainted when |
182 | starting subprocesses. You may wish to add something like this to your |
183 | setid and taint-checking scripts. |
184 | |
185 | delete @ENV{qw(IFS CDPATH ENV BASH_ENV)}; # Make %ENV safer |
186 | |
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187 | It's also possible to get into trouble with other operations that don't |
188 | care whether they use tainted values. Make judicious use of the file |
189 | tests in dealing with any user-supplied filenames. When possible, do |
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190 | opens and such B<after> properly dropping any special user (or group!) |
191 | privileges. Perl doesn't prevent you from opening tainted filenames for reading, |
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192 | so be careful what you print out. The tainting mechanism is intended to |
193 | prevent stupid mistakes, not to remove the need for thought. |
194 | |
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195 | Perl does not call the shell to expand wild cards when you pass B<system> |
196 | and B<exec> explicit parameter lists instead of strings with possible shell |
197 | wildcards in them. Unfortunately, the B<open>, B<glob>, and |
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198 | backtick functions provide no such alternate calling convention, so more |
199 | subterfuge will be required. |
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200 | |
201 | Perl provides a reasonably safe way to open a file or pipe from a setuid |
202 | or setgid program: just create a child process with reduced privilege who |
203 | does the dirty work for you. First, fork a child using the special |
204 | B<open> syntax that connects the parent and child by a pipe. Now the |
205 | child resets its ID set and any other per-process attributes, like |
206 | environment variables, umasks, current working directories, back to the |
207 | originals or known safe values. Then the child process, which no longer |
208 | has any special permissions, does the B<open> or other system call. |
209 | Finally, the child passes the data it managed to access back to the |
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210 | parent. Because the file or pipe was opened in the child while running |
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211 | under less privilege than the parent, it's not apt to be tricked into |
212 | doing something it shouldn't. |
213 | |
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214 | Here's a way to do backticks reasonably safely. Notice how the B<exec> is |
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215 | not called with a string that the shell could expand. This is by far the |
216 | best way to call something that might be subjected to shell escapes: just |
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217 | never call the shell at all. |
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218 | |
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219 | use English; |
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220 | die "Can't fork: $!" unless defined $pid = open(KID, "-|"); |
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221 | if ($pid) { # parent |
222 | while (<KID>) { |
223 | # do something |
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224 | } |
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225 | close KID; |
226 | } else { |
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227 | my @temp = ($EUID, $EGID); |
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228 | $EUID = $UID; |
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229 | $EGID = $GID; # initgroups() also called! |
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230 | # Make sure privs are really gone |
231 | ($EUID, $EGID) = @temp; |
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232 | die "Can't drop privileges" |
233 | unless $UID == $EUID && $GID eq $EGID; |
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234 | $ENV{PATH} = "/bin:/usr/bin"; |
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235 | exec 'myprog', 'arg1', 'arg2' |
236 | or die "can't exec myprog: $!"; |
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237 | } |
238 | |
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239 | A similar strategy would work for wildcard expansion via C<glob>, although |
240 | you can use C<readdir> instead. |
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241 | |
242 | Taint checking is most useful when although you trust yourself not to have |
243 | written a program to give away the farm, you don't necessarily trust those |
244 | who end up using it not to try to trick it into doing something bad. This |
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245 | is the kind of security checking that's useful for set-id programs and |
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246 | programs launched on someone else's behalf, like CGI programs. |
247 | |
248 | This is quite different, however, from not even trusting the writer of the |
249 | code not to try to do something evil. That's the kind of trust needed |
250 | when someone hands you a program you've never seen before and says, "Here, |
251 | run this." For that kind of safety, check out the Safe module, |
252 | included standard in the Perl distribution. This module allows the |
253 | programmer to set up special compartments in which all system operations |
254 | are trapped and namespace access is carefully controlled. |
255 | |
256 | =head2 Security Bugs |
257 | |
258 | Beyond the obvious problems that stem from giving special privileges to |
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259 | systems as flexible as scripts, on many versions of Unix, set-id scripts |
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260 | are inherently insecure right from the start. The problem is a race |
261 | condition in the kernel. Between the time the kernel opens the file to |
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262 | see which interpreter to run and when the (now-set-id) interpreter turns |
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263 | around and reopens the file to interpret it, the file in question may have |
264 | changed, especially if you have symbolic links on your system. |
265 | |
266 | Fortunately, sometimes this kernel "feature" can be disabled. |
267 | Unfortunately, there are two ways to disable it. The system can simply |
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268 | outlaw scripts with any set-id bit set, which doesn't help much. |
269 | Alternately, it can simply ignore the set-id bits on scripts. If the |
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270 | latter is true, Perl can emulate the setuid and setgid mechanism when it |
271 | notices the otherwise useless setuid/gid bits on Perl scripts. It does |
272 | this via a special executable called B<suidperl> that is automatically |
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273 | invoked for you if it's needed. |
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274 | |
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275 | However, if the kernel set-id script feature isn't disabled, Perl will |
276 | complain loudly that your set-id script is insecure. You'll need to |
277 | either disable the kernel set-id script feature, or put a C wrapper around |
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278 | the script. A C wrapper is just a compiled program that does nothing |
279 | except call your Perl program. Compiled programs are not subject to the |
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280 | kernel bug that plagues set-id scripts. Here's a simple wrapper, written |
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281 | in C: |
282 | |
283 | #define REAL_PATH "/path/to/script" |
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284 | main(ac, av) |
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285 | char **av; |
286 | { |
287 | execv(REAL_PATH, av); |
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288 | } |
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289 | |
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290 | Compile this wrapper into a binary executable and then make I<it> rather |
291 | than your script setuid or setgid. |
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292 | |
293 | See the program B<wrapsuid> in the F<eg> directory of your Perl |
294 | distribution for a convenient way to do this automatically for all your |
295 | setuid Perl programs. It moves setuid scripts into files with the same |
296 | name plus a leading dot, and then compiles a wrapper like the one above |
297 | for each of them. |
298 | |
299 | In recent years, vendors have begun to supply systems free of this |
300 | inherent security bug. On such systems, when the kernel passes the name |
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301 | of the set-id script to open to the interpreter, rather than using a |
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302 | pathname subject to meddling, it instead passes I</dev/fd/3>. This is a |
303 | special file already opened on the script, so that there can be no race |
304 | condition for evil scripts to exploit. On these systems, Perl should be |
305 | compiled with C<-DSETUID_SCRIPTS_ARE_SECURE_NOW>. The B<Configure> |
306 | program that builds Perl tries to figure this out for itself, so you |
307 | should never have to specify this yourself. Most modern releases of |
308 | SysVr4 and BSD 4.4 use this approach to avoid the kernel race condition. |
309 | |
310 | Prior to release 5.003 of Perl, a bug in the code of B<suidperl> could |
311 | introduce a security hole in systems compiled with strict POSIX |
312 | compliance. |
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313 | |
314 | =head2 Protecting Your Programs |
315 | |
316 | There are a number of ways to hide the source to your Perl programs, |
317 | with varying levels of "security". |
318 | |
319 | First of all, however, you I<can't> take away read permission, because |
320 | the source code has to be readable in order to be compiled and |
321 | interpreted. (That doesn't mean that a CGI script's source is |
322 | readable by people on the web, though.) So you have to leave the |
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323 | permissions at the socially friendly 0755 level. This lets |
324 | people on your local system only see your source. |
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325 | |
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326 | Some people mistakenly regard this as a security problem. If your program does |
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327 | insecure things, and relies on people not knowing how to exploit those |
328 | insecurities, it is not secure. It is often possible for someone to |
329 | determine the insecure things and exploit them without viewing the |
330 | source. Security through obscurity, the name for hiding your bugs |
331 | instead of fixing them, is little security indeed. |
332 | |
333 | You can try using encryption via source filters (Filter::* from CPAN). |
334 | But crackers might be able to decrypt it. You can try using the |
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335 | byte code compiler and interpreter described below, but crackers might |
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336 | be able to de-compile it. You can try using the native-code compiler |
337 | described below, but crackers might be able to disassemble it. These |
338 | pose varying degrees of difficulty to people wanting to get at your |
339 | code, but none can definitively conceal it (this is true of every |
340 | language, not just Perl). |
341 | |
342 | If you're concerned about people profiting from your code, then the |
343 | bottom line is that nothing but a restrictive licence will give you |
344 | legal security. License your software and pepper it with threatening |
345 | statements like "This is unpublished proprietary software of XYZ Corp. |
346 | Your access to it does not give you permission to use it blah blah |
347 | blah." You should see a lawyer to be sure your licence's wording will |
348 | stand up in court. |
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349 | |
350 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
351 | |
352 | L<perlrun> for its description of cleaning up environment variables. |