atom feed82 messages in org.freebsd.freebsd-hackersProtection from the dreaded "rm -fr /"
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Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 1:19 am 
Edwin GroothuisOct 2, 2004 1:33 am 
Michael ReifenbergerOct 2, 2004 1:34 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 1:39 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 1:51 am 
Ryan SommersOct 2, 2004 1:52 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 1:53 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 2:06 am 
Max LaierOct 2, 2004 2:24 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 3:19 am 
Greg BlackOct 2, 2004 3:57 am 
Ceri DaviesOct 2, 2004 4:22 am 
Ceri DaviesOct 2, 2004 4:25 am 
Max LaierOct 2, 2004 4:51 am 
Peter JeremyOct 2, 2004 5:43 am 
Dimitry AndricOct 2, 2004 7:48 am 
Simon L. NielsenOct 2, 2004 8:03 am 
Sean FarleyOct 2, 2004 8:41 am 
SamOct 2, 2004 8:54 am 
Jacques A. VidrineOct 2, 2004 9:46 am 
Tillman HodgsonOct 2, 2004 9:51 am 
Lee HarrOct 2, 2004 9:53 am 
Tillman HodgsonOct 2, 2004 9:55 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 10:10 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 10:55 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 10:56 am 
Tillman HodgsonOct 2, 2004 11:09 am 
Doug RussellOct 2, 2004 11:37 am 
David SchultzOct 2, 2004 11:50 am 
David SchultzOct 2, 2004 12:01 pm 
Michael ReifenbergerOct 2, 2004 12:16 pm 
Doug RussellOct 2, 2004 12:18 pm 
Michael ReifenbergerOct 2, 2004 12:26 pm 
Dmitry FrolovOct 2, 2004 12:37 pm 
Doug RussellOct 2, 2004 12:48 pm 
David SchultzOct 2, 2004 1:11 pm 
Michael ReifenbergerOct 2, 2004 1:49 pm 
Tillman HodgsonOct 2, 2004 2:05 pm 
Garance A DrosihnOct 2, 2004 2:22 pm 
Ceri DaviesOct 2, 2004 3:00 pm 
sor...@cydem.orgOct 2, 2004 3:11 pm 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 4:28 pm 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 4:28 pm 
David SchultzOct 2, 2004 5:19 pm 
M. Warner LoshOct 2, 2004 6:26 pm 
M. Warner LoshOct 2, 2004 6:28 pm 
M. Warner LoshOct 2, 2004 6:29 pm 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 2, 2004 6:53 pm 
Thomas David RiversOct 2, 2004 6:53 pm 
M. Warner LoshOct 2, 2004 7:07 pm 
Doug RussellOct 2, 2004 7:11 pm 
Tillman HodgsonOct 2, 2004 8:09 pm 
Tillman HodgsonOct 2, 2004 8:11 pm 
David SchultzOct 2, 2004 11:31 pm 
Sam LawranceOct 3, 2004 12:35 am 
Chris HowellsOct 3, 2004 5:07 am 
Mike MeyerOct 3, 2004 5:07 am 
Mike MeyerOct 3, 2004 5:07 am 
M. Warner LoshOct 3, 2004 10:37 am 
Greg ShenautOct 3, 2004 11:14 am 
Dmitry MorozovskyOct 3, 2004 11:28 am 
Thomas SparrevohnOct 3, 2004 11:40 am 
Dag-Erling SmørgravOct 3, 2004 1:33 pm 
Roman NeuhauserOct 3, 2004 2:59 pm 
M. Warner LoshOct 3, 2004 6:38 pm 
Mark MurrayOct 4, 2004 1:10 am 
Dmitry KarasikOct 4, 2004 3:15 am 
Dave HorsfallOct 4, 2004 3:27 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 4, 2004 3:49 am 
Stijn HoopOct 4, 2004 4:52 am 
Ceri DaviesOct 4, 2004 5:33 am 
Søren SchmidtOct 4, 2004 5:43 am 
Chris HowellsOct 4, 2004 6:16 pm 
Chris DillonOct 5, 2004 8:36 am 
SamOct 5, 2004 9:03 am 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 5, 2004 5:12 pm 
Giorgos KeramidasOct 5, 2004 5:42 pm 
Matthew DillonOct 5, 2004 6:30 pm 
Matthew DillonOct 5, 2004 6:56 pm 
Matthew DillonOct 5, 2004 11:39 pm 
Thomas SparrevohnOct 6, 2004 12:49 pm 
Lyndon NerenbergOct 28, 2004 5:31 am 
Subject:Protection from the dreaded "rm -fr /"
From:Jacques A. Vidrine (nec@FreeBSD.org)
Date:Oct 2, 2004 9:46:25 am
List:org.freebsd.freebsd-hackers

On Sat, Oct 02, 2004 at 10:43:49PM +1000, Peter Jeremy wrote:

I've had a customer write a cronjob that did almost exactly this. He managed to 'test' it on all the (redundant) production systems as well as the test model. We were only called in when he found that there were some unexpected console messages and the systems wouldn't boot when he pressed the reset button. Luckily it managed to kill itself before it destroyed all the evidence (since the culprit initially denied doing anything).

Based on that, I'm definitely in favour of some anti-foot-shooting measures.

[...]

FWIW, I'm not in favor of adding ad-hoc "features" to handle edge-cases. ("feature" because this is actually introducing a bug :-)

I picked this email to which to respond, because I can share my own stupidity. Case much like the one described above, but my cronjob included something like:

cd /path/to/directory/with/temporary/files rm -fr *

Only another admin removed `/path/to/directory/with/temporary/files'... so the `cd' failed and left the current directory as `/'. For some reason the system crashed :-) ... and then crashed again a few days after restoring from backup... doh!

Will the next step be to prevent `rm -fr *' iff the current working directory is '/' ? Please explain your answer. :-)

Cheers,