You don't grok ulimit. There are two kinds of limits: hard limits and soft limits. A hard limit cannot be increased by non-root users, while a soft limit can.

If a distribution sets hard limits in a shell startup file like /etc/profile or whatever, then those limits will be applied at login time for all users, and users cannot raise them.

The key here is that this is 100%, ENTIRELY, COMPLETELY distribution-specific and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the kernel. Thus, using that as the one and only, main point in an article about KERNEL security is just silly.


[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/308/31059#31059