topic Re: fuser in Operating System - HP-UX

fuser

AFI HP-UX ADMIN — Mon, 16 Apr 2001 21:59:57 GMT

Is there really a risk allowing everyone to run fuser?

It appears that `fuser -kf filename` run by a non-privledged user isn't any different than allowing them to run `kill -9 filename`. Where as they will only be allowed to kill PIDs owned by themselves.

Re: fuser

Vincenzo Restuccia — Mon, 16 Apr 2001 22:32:06 GMT

No warnig if the user can't kill PID.

Re: fuser

Rita C Workman — Tue, 17 Apr 2001 13:08:42 GMT

Well let's think about it...

Doing a kill on a PID (process) owned by the user...ok.
But since there could be same name processes being run by a number of users, how could you seperate this process from that by doing a fuser command. It would kill all the processes matching, not just one PID. That may be the issue. And obviously, not knowing what child processes may be out there...could lead to alot of defunct processes.
Generally, fuser is a command that is run by someone sitting higher (like root) who has the authority to clean up all parts of a process.

Just a thought,
/rcw