Re: [BLUG] Unix conventions for controlling file access

As others have said, this technique is decades old. There is nothing harmful
about it.

This technique is older than Linux, let alone the Ext2 file-system. Every
file-system for Linux has to support this, as it is an inherent
characteristic of Unix-like file-systems and our ability to do upgrades of
live systems (and perform rm -r / and actually delete everything).

Most security measures are about reducing risk. If you only have a temp. file
as an open-able file for a short period of time, it reduces the risk of
others snooping it on you. -- Especially when the names are picked truly
randomly.

Cheers,
Steven Black

On Fri, Jul 13, 2007 at 04:05:49PM +0000, Mark Krenz wrote:
> # lsof | grep deleted
> [snip]
> mysqld 31958 mysql 7u REG 9,0 0 15 /tmp/ibwZfdKe (deleted)
> mysqld 31958 mysql 13u REG 9,0 0 16 /tmp/ibR0K4tQ (deleted)
> mysqld 31959 mysql 6u REG 9,0 0 14 /tmp/ibuPNjWc (deleted)
> mysqld 31959 mysql 7u REG 9,0 0 15 /tmp/ibwZfdKe (deleted)
> mysqld 31959 mysql 13u REG 9,0 0 16 /tmp/ibR0K4tQ (deleted)
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