Explanation for newbies: setuid is a special permission bit that makes an executable run with the permissions of its owner rather than the user executing it. This is often used to let a user run a specific program as root without having sudo access.

If this sounds like a security nightmare, that’s because it is.

In linux, setuid is slowly being phased out by Capabilities. An example of this is the ping command which used to need setuid in order to create raw sockets, but now just needs the cap_net_raw capability. More info: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/382771/why-does-ping-need-setuid-permission. Nevertheless, many linux distros still ship with setuid executables, for example passwd from the shadow-utils package.

      • Shanmugha@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 days ago

        Complaining? No, I counter your evangelistic attitude that whoever does not like Rust is just self-important elitist. That kind of people does exist, but not liking Rust is not a sign. Cheers

        • Billegh@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 days ago

          Sure, but that was a strong response for a comment on the situation. Sounds like you care. I do not. 😊

            • Billegh@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              3 days ago

              Hard agree to setuid being a problem. And that it is a problem because any of these tools written in c can be a security hole, because c is hard to get right. And I find it funny that c devs are butthurt over how rust won’t let them write obviously bad code.

              But it’s OK, words are difficult. 😊

              • Shanmugha@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                3 days ago

                And now you do not care so much that this comment tree is already hilariously long, and also has two of your emojis used to hide your true emotions. As much as I would love to discuss how c devs are “butthurt” and Rust is so damn good (sarcasm, of course), I just won’t do it with someone so full of themselves and insecure. Have a good day