Process::Initgroups

Section: User Contributed Perl Documentation (3pm)
Updated: 2013-03-09
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NAME

Process::Initgroups - Perl extension to use the c function initgroups found on most linux like systems.  

SYNOPSIS

  use Process::Initgroups;
  my $user = 'dave';
  my (undef,undef,$uid,$gid,undef,undef,undef,undef,undef) = getpwnam($user);
  #
  # Here you can use the gid returned by getpwnam, which is the primary group for the user or arbitrarily choose a group with getgrnam
  #  my $gid = getgrnam('some_group_name');
  #
  if( ! Process::Initgroups::initgroups($user,$gid) ) 
  {
       # handle failure 
  }
  # Assuming the goal is to drop privliges, it is still necessary to setgid, then setuid
  if( ! setgid($gid) ) { handle failure }
  if( ! setuid($uid) ) { handle failure }
 

DESCRIPTION

Runs initgroups found on most unix/linux systems. Return codes are the same as POSIX return codes. Failure: undef. Success: ``0 but true''  

EXPORT

None by default.  

SEE ALSO Initgroups and setgroups man pages. Initgroups will initalize the process with all groups the user belongs to in /etc/groups.

If the user does not require all groups, then use the obscure: $) = ``$gid $gid''; which passes the second gid to setgroups(); This will effectively clear the group list and the gid passed will be the only group associated with the process.

Note if the second gid is omitted, then $) = ``$gid''; leaves the current process real and effective gid(s) associated with the process.  

AUTHOR

dave, <dave@>  

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2013 by dave;

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.14.2 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
EXPORT
SEE ALSO Initgroups and setgroups man pages. Initgroups will initalize the process with all groups the user belongs to in /etc/groups.
AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
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