Overview

Set-UID is an important security mechanism in Unix operating systems. When a Set-UID program runs, it assumes the owner's privileges. For example, if the program's owner is root, then when anyone runs this program, the program gains the root's privileges during its execution. Set-UID allows us to do many interesting things, but unfortunately, it is also the culprit of many bad things. The objective of this lab is for students to understand what risks such privileged programs face and how they can be attacked if there are mistakes in the code.

Lab Tasks (Description) (Video)

  • For instructors: if you prefer to customize the lab description to suit your own courses, here are our Latex source files.
  • VM version: This lab has been tested on our pre-built SEEDUbuntu12.04.

Recommended Time:

  • Supervised situation (e.g. a closely-guided lab session): 3 hours
  • Unsupervised situation (e.g. take-home project): 1 week

Suggested Reading

SEED Project