Python & Linux, some questions (2)

[Luca T.]

Ok...
Now...
I made this simple program as a test:

import popen2
r,w,e = popen2.popen3('su -c ls')
for line in e.readlines():
print 'E: ' + line
for line in r.readlines():
print 'R: ' + line

r.close
w.close
e.close

In few words, it runs "su -c ls", and it should tell me what it writes
in stdout and stderr.

Now... this is what i get:

[luca@ATH2000 tmp]$ python test.py
E: standard in must be a tty

So it seems that "su" refuses to work if it is run like this.
Now, beside "sudo" that i CANNOT use because i don't want to change the
configuration of the user's comp... any idea about how i could run a
program as root from inside my python program?

Thanx,
Luca

[Paul Miller]

Can someone tell me if 4Suite Domlette works correctly with Unicode paths?

This would be on Windows and on OS X.

[Simon Burton]

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 20:45:53 -0700, Hamilcar Barca wrote:

In article <c3*************@ID-99001.news.uni-berlin.de> (Mon, 15 Mar 2004
21:28:47 +0100), Luca T. wrote:

r,w,e = popen2.popen3('su -c ls')

So it seems that "su" refuses to work if it is run like this.

su needs the user's password and it insists on reading it from a tty
because it can control echoing.

Maybe pexpect can help you here. It works great on linux.

Simon.

[Thomas Guettler]

Am Mon, 15 Mar 2004 21:28:47 +0100 schrieb Luca T.:

So it seems that "su" refuses to work if it is run like this.
Now, beside "sudo" that i CANNOT use because i don't want to change the
configuration of the user's comp... any idea about how i could run a
program as root from inside my python program?

Hi,

write a little C programm and make it setuid root.
Scripts cannot be setuid.

Be carefull, there are a many things you need to
make it secure. Maybe suexec of apache can be
used as template.

HTH,
Thomas

[Hamilcar Barca]

In article <c3*************@ID-99001.news.uni-berlin.de> (Mon, 15 Mar 2004
21:28:47 +0100), Luca T. wrote:

r,w,e = popen2.popen3('su -c ls')

So it seems that "su" refuses to work if it is run like this.
su needs the user's password and it insists on reading it from a tty
because it can control echoing.
any idea about how i could run a
program as root from inside my python program?

1) Can you run your program in a shell? The user will still need
root's password.

2) Create a copy of ls and make it suid root. The user will be able
to list the files in any directory -- will this compromise security?

[Luca T.]

Thomas Guettler wrote:

Be carefull, there are a many things you need to
make it secure. Maybe suexec of apache can be
used as template.

Where can i find its sources?

Thanx,
Luca

[Peter Hansen]

Luca T. wrote:

Ok...
Now...
I made this simple program as a test:

import popen2
r,w,e = popen2.popen3('su -c ls')
for line in e.readlines():
print 'E: ' + line
for line in r.readlines():
print 'R: ' + line

r.close
w.close
e.close

Bug: you are referencing r.close and friends, but not actually calling
them. Python is not VB (or Pascal, etc), so you *must* include the
parentheses to make a method call:

r.close()
w.close()
e.close()

PyChecker can warn about such things, and many others.

-Peter

[Luca T.]

Peter Hansen wrote:

Bug: you are referencing r.close and friends, but not actually calling
them. Python is not VB (or Pascal, etc), so you *must* include the
parentheses to make a method call:

r.close()
w.close()
e.close()
Thank you
PyChecker can warn about such things, and many others.

I'll search for it

Thanx again,
Luca

[Thomas Guettler]

Am Tue, 16 Mar 2004 19:08:52 +0100 schrieb Luca T.:

Thomas Guettler wrote:

Be carefull, there are a many things you need to
make it secure. Maybe suexec of apache can be
used as template.

Where can i find its sources?

I don't know, but google does:
http://www.google.de/search?q=suexec.c
HTH,
Thomas