Andrew Tridgell
7166aff0f3
The ownership walk that resolves operator-supplied paths asks who planted a
symlink, not where the path came out, so a symlink owned by uid 0 or the euid
is followed wherever it points. A daemon already narrows that with the served
module root; nothing else has a root to narrow it with.
That leaves a wrapper serving a restricted directory over a remote shell with
no way to bound the resolution. rrsync can vet the argv it is handed, but
filter rules travel over the protocol instead: a dir-merge rule can name a
merge file outside the restricted dir and the server reads it in as rules.
Redacting the resulting diagnostics does not close it, because an exclude-only
merge produces none -- every line becomes a pattern, so nothing fails to parse,
and the client reads the file's contents off which of its own names went
missing from the file list.
--confine-root gives that wrapper the root the daemon has. The existing module
check becomes a root check that takes its root from module_dir when we are a
daemon and from the option otherwise, so daemon behaviour is unchanged; a
daemon ignores the option outright, since it arrives in a peer-supplied argv
and could only widen the module.
The tracker is seeded from getcwd() rather than curr_dir, which is only the
lexical name change_dir() was given: descend into a source argument through a
trusted symlink and the two sit at different depths, so a ".." that really
escapes looks like it landed inside. When the cwd cannot be read there is
nothing to measure against and the open is refused -- an empty tracker does not
deny by itself, because a leading ".." pops nothing from it and an empty path
reads as an ancestor of the root.
An fd pin (/proc/self/fd/N, which rrsync uses so no later symlink can redirect
a validated option path) is spelled outside the root by construction, so the
walk transits the pin namespace and the pin is judged by what it points at.
Only a bare ".../fd/<digits>" is resolved that way, and one that will not
readlink to an absolute path is refused; rrsync's ".../fd/N/<leaf>" spelling
resolves through the magic link and has its remaining components checked
normally.
--insecure-links is refused alongside it: that opt-out returns the legacy open
before the walk that enforces the root runs, so the pair would have quietly
meant no confinement at all.
(cherry picked from commit 3113011218)
WHAT IS RSYNC?
Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool for both remote and local files.
Rsync uses a delta-transfer algorithm which provides a very fast method for bringing remote files into sync. It does this by sending just the differences in the files across the link, without requiring that both sets of files are present at one of the ends of the link beforehand. At first glance this may seem impossible because the calculation of diffs between two files normally requires local access to both files.
A technical report describing the rsync algorithm is included with this package.
USAGE
Basically you use rsync just like scp, but rsync has many additional options. To get a complete list of supported options type:
rsync --help
See the manpage for more detailed information.
BUILDING AND INSTALLING
If you need to build rsync yourself, check out the INSTALL page for information on what libraries and packages you can use to get the maximum features in your build.
SETUP
Rsync normally uses ssh or rsh for communication with remote systems. It does not need to be setuid and requires no special privileges for installation. You must, however, have a working ssh or rsh system. Using ssh is recommended for its security features.
Alternatively, rsync can run in `daemon' mode, listening on a socket. This is generally used for public file distribution, although authentication and access control are available.
To install rsync, first run the "configure" script. This will create a Makefile and config.h appropriate for your system. Then type "make".
Note that on some systems you will have to force configure not to use gcc because gcc may not support some features (such as 64 bit file offsets) that your system may support. Set the environment variable CC to the name of your native compiler before running configure in this case.
Once built put a copy of rsync in your search path on the local and remote systems (or use "make install"). That's it!
RSYNC DAEMONS
Rsync can also talk to "rsync daemons" which can provide anonymous or authenticated rsync. See the rsyncd.conf(5) manpage for details on how to setup an rsync daemon. See the rsync(1) manpage for info on how to connect to an rsync daemon.
WEB SITE
For more information, visit the main rsync web site.
You'll find a FAQ list, downloads, resources, HTML versions of the manpages, etc.
MAILING LISTS
There is a mailing list for the discussion of rsync and its applications that is open to anyone to join. New releases are announced on this list, and there is also an announcement-only mailing list for those that want official announcements. See the mailing-list page for full details.
BUG REPORTS
The bug-tracking web page has full details on bug reporting.
That page contains links to the current bug list, and information on how to do a good job when reporting a bug. You might also like to try searching the Internet for the error message you've received, or looking in the mailing list archives.
To send a bug report, follow the instructions on the bug-tracking page of the web site.
Alternately, email your bug report to rsync@lists.samba.org.
For security issues please email details of the issue to rsync.project@gmail.com.
GIT REPOSITORY
If you want to get the very latest version of rsync direct from the source code repository, then you will need to use git. The git repo is hosted on GitHub and on Samba's site.
See the download page for full details on all the ways to grab the source.
COPYRIGHT
Rsync was originally written by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. Many people from around the world have helped to maintain and improve it.
Special thanks go to Wayne Davison, who maintained rsync from 2004 to 2024.
Rsync may be used, modified and redistributed only under the terms of the GNU General Public License, found in the file COPYING in this distribution, or at the Free Software Foundation.