Homework 5

Total Points: 200
Due Date: Friday, December 11, 1998

1. (100 points) Please write a library function called my_system. The function my_system provides a safe environment for the execution of the given command. Specifically, it first deletes the caller's environment, and sets only the following environment variables: PATH (to "/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/ucb") IFS (to " \t\n"), SHELL (to the current value of the SHELL environment variable, or to the Bourne shell if SHELL is not set) and TZ (to "PST8PDT"). It sets umask to 077 and then spawns the shell named in SHELL to execute the given command.

The interface to my_system is identical to that of system(3), as is its functionality.

Hints: To write the function, in the parent ignore all signals. Then fork, and restore the previous signals in the child. (Use signal(3) for this.) Clean up the environment in the child, and then execve(2) the desired program. Meanwhile, in the parent, we do a wait(2) for the child process, and when the child terminates, we restore the old values of the signals. Please change the process environment after the fork(2). if you change it before the fork, you will change the parent process' environment, which is not correct!

You may find the program printenv(1) useful; it prints a list of all environment variables defined to it, so you can use it to see what environment variables are defined

Note: you may use any language you like, but the result must be a library function that can be called from a C program.

Also, the program ~cs153/tester.c is a primitive driver that you can use to test your library routine. (We will use the same sort of program, but with canned commands, to test your library function.) You need to create a Makefile that will compile your library routine, the tester.c program, link them, and call the executable tester. Please submit this Makefile, along with your library routine. Do not submit the tester.c program because we will use a modified version of the sample!

2. (100 points) Please read the book Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. Pick any two of the principles discussed in the book (either explicitly or implicitly; in the latter case, show how you derived the principle in a paragraph or two), and compare and contrast them with the way attackers would use Trojan horses, computer viruses, and other examples of malicious code to compromise the security of a system. Your essay should be at least two pages (120 lines) long.

Extra credit

3. (10 points each) Implement a set of library functions to enable the caller to control the environment set in my_system:
1. int le_set(char *env) takes an environment variable and associated value in the form "VAR=value". Subsequent calls to my_system will add that environment variable and value to the subprocess. If env is "VAR=", the variable is defined to have the empty value. If env is "VAR", the value from the current environment is used. This function returns 1 if the argument was successfully added, and 0 if not.
2. int le_unset(char *env) deletes an environment variable from the environment of subsequent calls to my_system. The argument env variable, so to delet "VAR", say "le_unset("VAR")". This function returns 1 if the argument was successfully deleted, and 0 if not.
3. void le_clobber(void) forces the next call to my_system to use the standard my_system environment.
4. int le_umask(int umask) changes the value of umask as indicated in the environment of subsequent calls to my_system. This function returns 1 if the change succeeds, and 0 if not.