Bug 25004

Summary: it is easy for a user to lock the entire system up with a shell script
Product: Base System Reporter: Bobb Voigt <smyl>
Component: miscAssignee: freebsd-bugs (Nobody) <bugs>
Status: Closed FIXED    
Severity: Affects Only Me    
Priority: Normal    
Version: 4.2-STABLE   
Hardware: Any   
OS: Any   

Description Bobb Voigt 2001-02-11 16:20:00 UTC 
system runs out of resourses, and locks up when a normal user runs a 
script that calls itself...
i have both searched the web, and read almost the entire online freebsd 
handbook looking for a solution to this problem, and have yet to find an 
answer to it...
it could just be me, but i have had a few users who do this 
"accidently"...
 >How-To-Repeat: 

create a script that calls itself multiple times in a loop
Comment 1 Peter Pentchev 2001-02-11 16:27:37 UTC 
On Sun, Feb 11, 2001 at 11:13:29AM -0500, Bobb Voigt wrote:
> 
> >Number:         25004
> >Category:       misc
> >Synopsis:       it is easy for a user to lock the entire system up with a shell script
> >Originator:     Bobb Voigt
> 
> system runs out of resourses, and locks up when a normal user runs a 
> script that calls itself...
> i have both searched the web, and read almost the entire online freebsd 
> handbook looking for a solution to this problem, and have yet to find an 
> answer to it...
> it could just be me, but i have had a few users who do this 
> "accidently"...
>  >How-To-Repeat: 
> 
> create a script that calls itself multiple times in a loop

Have you set maxproc limits in /etc/login.conf?

G'luck,
Peter

-- 
This sentence would be seven words long if it were six words shorter.
Comment 2 Kris Kennaway freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2001-03-24 05:54:35 UTC 
State Changed
From-To: open->closed

Can be trivially fixed using login.conf resource limits