Should you disable 'sync' and 'who' commands?

logicalfuzz · 02-05-2010, 09:21 AM

I read somewhere that 'sync' and 'who' commands in linux should be disabled. While i can understand that for the 'who' command, why so for 'sync'?

I can find sync and who as one of shell commands, whereas also in /bin/sync and /usr/bin/who. Are the shell commands and those in bin directory meant to serve the same purpose?

Finally, how can i disable these commands?

Web31337 · 02-06-2010, 04:53 AM

chmod 0700 for who.
I'm not sure what dangers can cause sync util... can you show the link where you read that?

carbonfiber · 02-06-2010, 05:12 AM

Why should one disable `who`?

Web31337 · 02-06-2010, 10:21 AM

probably to avoid seeing connected users's IPs. in case all other tools were disabled.

logicalfuzz · 02-06-2010, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Web31337

can you show the link where you read that?

Thats in the unix security standards documentation in my org. I wasn't sure why its there.. neither could i figure an appropriate search string for google... thats why i asked here.