CRON.CHK

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: December 31, 1989
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NAME

cron.chk - Checks contents of cron file(s) for potential danger.

SYNOPSIS

cron.chk

DESCRIPTION

cron.chk checks pathnames and files inside the cron files for writability. It filters out all paths or files that have a /tmp, /dev/null, or /dev/*ty, plus everything after a ">"; e.g. if crontab is writing to a file it doesn't care.

Since cron is run with root privileges, any file that root uses as input inside the cron files or any program that root executes is potential danger. World writable files can be changed by anyone to cause a root owned process to give away unwarranted privileges.

FILES

/usr/lib/cron /usr/spool/cron/crontabs/*

BUGS

Spurious messages can occur; a more stringent method (if perhaps less careful of a check) would be to test just the 6th field, instead of all the fields after the fifth. Also throwing away /tmp, etc. could be a mistake.

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Time: 23:44:35 GMT, February 06, 2023