177 – baselayout /etc/mtab fix

Bug 177 - baselayout /etc/mtab fix

Summary: baselayout /etc/mtab fix

Status:	RESOLVED FIXED

Alias:	None

Product:	Gentoo Linux
Classification:	Unclassified
Component:	[OLD] Core system (show other bugs)
Hardware:	x86 Linux

Importance:	High major (vote)
Assignee:	Martin Schlemmer (RETIRED)

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Depends on:
Blocks:

Reported:	2002-01-15 10:17 UTC by Daniel Robbins (RETIRED)
Modified:	2003-02-04 19:42 UTC (History)
CC List:	0 users

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Package list:
Runtime testing required:	---

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Description Daniel Robbins (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2002-01-15 10:17:48 UTC

Hey Azarah,

I have found two reasons why we need a non-symlinked /etc/mtab:

1) (as we already knew) the symlink to /proc/mounts messes up loopback device
handling

2) the symlink messes up filesystems mounted with the "user" option in
/etc/fstab.  With the symlink, any user can mount the filesystem (correct), but
any user can also unmount the filesystem.  With a real file at /etc/mtab, only
the user that mounted the filesystem can unmount it.  This is the correct
behavior and our current behavior could be considered a security hole.

Comment 1 Daniel Robbins (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2002-01-18 22:51:09 UTC

I'm fixing this in baselayout 1.7.0