Many years ago I was advised by a highway patrol officer I knew to get CPR training and them make sure I failed the certification. You still have the knowledge, and are just as likely to be able to save someone's life, but you aren't legally an "expert" and could be less liable if you try and fail.
I still think this is good advice, but IANAL and neither was he.
It is evidence that the legal system in the US is screwed up beyond hope that people are forced to resort to such methods.
Actually, having the compiler and tools installed isn't a security problem. Having X installed is, but the reasons for that are not clear from your post.
The OS is responsible for making sure that all code run by a user is subject to the security restrictions placed on that user. Barring bugs in the kernel (or processor) the ability to compile code gains nothing for the user.
That leaves having another user run code on your behalf. This includes: SUID/SGID programs with buffer overflows, insecure services and trojans.
Thus, X is insecure because it includes programs that are SUID/SGID or run as root and are linked against Xlib, which contains many exploitable bugs.
If you are interested in knowing what programs may be most vulnerable, use ps to see what root is running, and find to locate SUID/SGID programs.
ps is also usefull to determine the contents of the PATH variable for processes running as root. Make sure no directories in root's path are writeable by anyone but root! This would allow users to produce trojans easily.
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Not to be picky, but part of the reason sizeof doesn't do what you want is that it isn't a function--it's an operator.
I still think this is good advice, but IANAL and neither was he.
It is evidence that the legal system in the US is screwed up beyond hope that people are forced to resort to such methods.
-buma
Actually, having the compiler and tools installed isn't a security problem. Having X installed is, but the reasons for that are not clear from your post.
The OS is responsible for making sure that all code run by a user is subject to the security restrictions placed on that user. Barring bugs in the kernel (or processor) the ability to compile code gains nothing for the user.
That leaves having another user run code on your behalf. This includes: SUID/SGID programs with buffer overflows, insecure services and trojans.
Thus, X is insecure because it includes programs that are SUID/SGID or run as root and are linked against Xlib, which contains many exploitable bugs.
If you are interested in knowing what programs may be most vulnerable, use ps to see what root is running, and find to locate SUID/SGID programs.
ps is also usefull to determine the contents of the PATH variable for processes running as root. Make sure no directories in root's path are writeable by anyone but root! This would allow users to produce trojans easily.