Bash scripting question

[Kevin O'Gorman]

On Tue, 27 May 2003, David A. Bandel wrote:

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> On Tue, 27 May 2003 16:24:02 -0400 (EDT)
> <listmail at rotundus.com> wrote:
> 
> > David A. Bandel wrote,
> > > You cannot run a script SUID.  Think about it a minute and you?ll
> > > see that you don?t ever want that capability.
> > >
> > > The script runs and calls other programs/built-ins.
> > 
> > I can see the need to be cautious with SUID anything, but is a script
> > really that much more dangerous than anything else running SUID?
> 
> Yes.  Consider: a script will run _anything_ you put in it.  Now think
> of the worst stuff you could put in it.  Want your users running that
> SUID?  And even seemingly benign stuff, if it has a command that?s not
> fully pathed (oops), and as a user I create a similarly named malicious
> tool (and of course my PATH has $HOME/bin before the system paths) --
> sounds like a wtfo (what the frell over?) to me.
> 

I miss the logic of this.  An executable will also run _anything_
you put in it, and succeed if it has enough privilege.  And they will
run as a Trojan if they're in your searchpath. There must be something 
else that makes scripts more dangerous.

++ kevin