[Imc-makerspace] Freedom is a Lie

[Erich Heine]

A lot of times operating systems don't allow gdb (and other programs using
the same techniques) to attach to running suid programs, or other programs
running with privs, to prevent them from being abused for security breaches
(and very difficult to find/detect ones at that).  This is true even for the
root user on some systems.

I believe on Mac this can be worked around, using the codesign program that
comes with developer tools, but I am not certain of that... this is a fairly
recent thing.

It really isn't about GPL or any other random anti-freedom thing -- its just
about being careful of random code execution. Keep in mind that if it was a
windows virus you would be ranting about how they shouldn't just trust
arbitrary code, and security this and that with no thoughts of freedom
implications.

Regards,
Erich

On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 6:58 AM, Stewart Dickson <MathArt at emsh.calarts.edu>wrote:

> **
> OK, this one takes the cake.  Why the Apple Intel Mac truly is evil.
>
> GDB <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb> is free software, covered by the GNU
> General Public License
>
> ...
>
> This GDB <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb> was configured as
> "x86_64-apple-darwin"...
>
> ...
>
> (gdb <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb>) run ...
>
> We need authorization from an admin user to run the debugger.
>
> WTF?!!!!
>
> Admin username (dickson):
> Password:
> Unable to find Mach task port for process-id 9495: (os/kern) failure (0x5).
> (gdb <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb>)
>
> You suck!
>
> "Slavery is freedom" -- George Orwell, "1984"
> "The cake is a lie" -- "Portal"
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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