[arch-general] makepkg running as root

[Colin Pitrat]

> You guys DO know that 'rm -rf /' is a harmless command that simply exits
> with an error message? You should use 'rm -rf /*' to kill someone's 
system.

You say that hoping that some of us will try 'rm -rf /' ?

By the way, I fear 'rm -rf ~' as standard user as much as I fear 'rm -rf 
/' as root (call me believer, I'm pretty sure it works on some systems).

Regards,
Colin Pitrat



Jan de Groot schrieb:
>> Just think of what this would do as root in a PKGBUILD:
>>
>> build() {
>>   echo "You've been pwned!!!"
>>   rm -rf /
>> }
>>
> 
> Be sure to check .install files too. They can also contain rm -rf / in 
post_install, those are executed by root when you install the package ;)



However, the problem with makepkg as root can be more subtle: If a
broken PKGBUILD or Makefile installs files into / instead of
${startdir}/pkg, files will be missing in your package. However, you
will not notice it, as the files are present in your system, and there
won't be any error messages during the build process.

I met a user on IRC once who claimed his PKGBUILD and the resulting
package were fine, but the package was indeed empty, instead makepkg
installed all files directly into his system - these files were now
unknown to pacman.

Worst case (apart from a malicious PKGBUILD) is that you overwrite
critical system configuration files or libraries and render your system
unusable.

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