Vfat increases file permissions

[Steve G <linux_4ever@yahoo.com>]

Hello,

I am wondering about something. Why is it that when I mount a
vfat floppy disk and copy a file to the disk, it becomes
executable?

[root@linux fd_test]# umask 277
[root@linux fd_test]# touch test.txt
[root@linux fd_test]# ls -l test.txt
-r--------    1 root     root            0 Feb 11 17:20 test.txt
[root@linux fd_test]# cp test.txt /mnt/floppy/
[root@linux fd_test]# ls -l /mnt/floppy/test.txt
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            0 Feb 11 17:20
/mnt/floppy/test.txt

In the DOS world, not every file is executable. It uses the file
extention to decide if the file is executable. A text file is not
implicitly executable unless it has a .bat file extention.

Is the Linux implementation interpreting something that doesn't
actually exist in the original?

I am concerned about world writeable, executable files existing
on my floppies or USB devices that are formatted vfat. This seems
like a security concern to me.

Thanks,
Steve Grubb

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