From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 19 Jun 2001 11:58:23 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 19 Jun 2001 11:58:15 -0400 Received: from [204.94.214.10] ([204.94.214.10]:36409 "EHLO deliverator.sgi.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 19 Jun 2001 11:58:03 -0400 Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 09:03:23 -0700 From: richard offer To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Why can't I ptrace init (pid == 1) ? Message-ID: <102490000.992966603@changeling.engr.sgi.com> X-Mailer: Mulberry/2.1.0a6 (Linux/x86) X-HomePage: http://www.whitequeen.com/users/richard/ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In arch/i386/kernel/ptrace.c there is the following code ... ret = -EPERM; if (pid == 1) /* you may not mess with init */ goto out_tsk; What is the rationale for this ? Is this a real security decision or an implementation detail (bad things will happen). Thoughts ? richard. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Offer Technical Lead, Trust Technology "Specialization is for insects" SGI _______________________________________________________________________