(find.info)Security Considerations

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11 Security Considerations
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Security considerations are important if you are using 'find' or 'xargs'
to search for or process files that don't belong to you or which other
people have control.  Security considerations relating to 'locate' may
also apply if you have files which you do not want others to see.

   The most severe forms of security problems affecting 'find' and
related programs are when third parties bring about a situation allowing
them to do something they would normally not be able to accomplish.
This is called _privilege elevation_.  This might include deleting files
they would not normally be able to delete.  It is common for the
operating system to periodically invoke 'find' for self-maintenance
purposes.  These invocations of 'find' are particularly problematic from
a security point of view as these are often invoked by the superuser and
search the entire filesystem hierarchy.  Generally, the severity of any
associated problem depends on what the system is going to do with the
files found by 'find'.

Levels of Risk

What is your level of exposure to security problems?

Security Considerations for find

Security problems with find

Security Considerations for xargs

Security problems with xargs

Security Considerations for locate

Security problems with locate

Security Summary

That was all very complex, what does it boil down to?

Further Reading on Security