Re: [Patch] Automatically switch to privileged when Nmap has required capabilities

[Patrick Donnelly <batrick () batbytes com>]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 8:36 AM, Daniel Miller <bonsaiviking () gmail com> wrote:
> >   * When installing Nmap through "make install", we can grant the
> >     capabilities (by default) so that users can use privileged features
> >     without the security risk of running as root.
>
> This is not a good idea, because these capabilities are protecting
> privileged operations that admins may not want to grant to regular users.
> Specifically, being able to sniff network traffic, possibly being permitted
> to manage network interfaces, etc. On the other hand, we could ship a
> simple script to do this, or create a new make target, "make setcap" or
> something, to make it easier for people to do it on their own.

I agree with Dan here. Of particular concern is the ability of a user
to run arbitrary NSE scripts that can sniff network traffic and create
packets with malicious headers.

I do very much like the idea of Nmap downgrading privileges when run
as root, keeping only the capabilities that it needs.

-- 
Patrick Donnelly
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