proc perms don't change with file

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Shouldn't the perms change with the executable?
  • Executable with execute only permissions (111) disallows reading process stats from /proc by user that initiated the executable.
  • Changes the permissions on the file on disk have no effect, the running binary stays with its original permissions at time of initiation.
  • Theory : The permissions are stored in an inode and the running binary and therefore  the reference to it in proc should be references to the on disk inode.
  • Assumption : Looks like the kind of thing that might have been done that way to close a security hole.
  • Assumption : Copy rather than reference might be done that was to close a subtle security hole.
  • Is this a bug?
  • Is this an optimization that has some unfortunate side effects?
  • Is this something that was done for some non-obvious reason burried within either the VFS or the procfs code?

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

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