VI -- with no shell escape

[Bhaskar Luitel]

I have been looking for a modified version of VI which does not allow a shell escape. Has anyone come across any such shareware ?
The idea behind this is to let a set of users run VI ( as root) using SUDO.

Thanks In Advance,

Bhaskar

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

sorry not a direct answer, but why do you want to do this? There may be a way to give privilages another way... have a look at SCM
for example. Vi in versions such as elvis
are open source. You can also get script based
editors source on much of the linux on a floppy sites.

Have a look on freshmeat.net or the hpux
porting archive for alternative editors.
http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Editors/alpha.html

[Thierry Poels_1]

hmmmz, tricky business,

you could set the SHELL parameter to /bin/false before entering vi, but I don't guarantee that this trick is "fool"proof.

regards,
Thierry.

[Stefan Schulz]

Have you tried to set the vi as your login shell? This should eliminate the shell you could escape to.

[Bhaskar Luitel]

Thierry, Is there any way e,g, .exrc or passing some argument that can somehow dictat VI abt the shell escape ( or change its shell from default to to /usr/bin/false).How do we define SHELL to vi ?

Stephan , How can we pass on a file name to the vi when used in shell -- I am getting bus error while trying to do so ( even while using vi in a script -- which in turn defined as the login shell). The Idea is to give access only to the selected files as root. So passing on the filename is important too.

I am still hoping we can get this work thru the standard vi, if not I will take Bill's suggestion.

Thanks you all for your kind replies..
-Bhaskar

[Thierry Poels_1]

if in a script:
SHELL=/bin/false
vi $myfile

from the command line:
you could create an alias for vi:
alias vi="SHELL=/bin/false; /usr/bin/vi"
but this leaves the SHELL parameter set to /bin/false
and secondly if they have access to the command line; what's the use of denying shell access from within vi?

regards,
Thierry.

[Steven Sim Kok Leong · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you are looking for a modified version of vi which does not allow a shell escape, then you should be using rvim.

rvim is alike the vim/vi, but with restrictions. It will not be possible to start shell commands, or suspend vim.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong
Brainbench MVP for Unix Admin
http://www.brainbench.com

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

Sounds like Steve found your alternative and
luckily enough it's already ported:

http://hpux.connect.org.uk/hppd/hpux/Editors/vim-5.7/

Later,
Bill

[Bhaskar Luitel]

Thanks Steve , Bill and Theiry for your responses. 'rvim'works great for my purpose.
thanks again