System and popen system call

System executes a shell command

1 #include <stdio.h>
2 #include <stdlib.h>
3 
4 int main(void) {
5    if (system("/usr/bin/date")) // Always use a full or a relative path!!!
6        fprintf(stderr,"ERROR: %m\n");
7 
8         return(0);
9 }

Security issue

As system() searches through $PATH to find the executable file - it is possible to put an executable with the same name earlier in $PATH and run a bogus and evil program.

Make your own system() function

 1 #include <stdio.h>
 2 #include <stdlib.h>
 3 #include <sys/types.h>
 4 #include <unistd.h>
 5 #include <wait.h>
 6 #include <errno.h>
 7 
 8 int my_system(const char *command) {
 9         int wstatus;
10         int pid;
11 
12         if (command[0] != '/') {
13                 errno=EPERM;
14                 return(EPERM);
15         }
16         if ((pid=fork()) == 0) { // Child
17                 execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", command, (char *) NULL);
18                 return(0);
19         } else {
20                 if (pid < 0) // fork failed
21                         return(pid);
22                 if (pid > 0) { //Parent
23                         while(wait(&wstatus) > 0);
24                         return(0);
25                 }
26         }
27 }
28 
29 int main(void) {
30         if (my_system("date"))
31                 fprintf(stderr,"ERROR: %m\n");
32         if (my_system("/usr/bin/date"))
33                 fprintf(stderr,"ERROR: %m\n");
34         return(0);
35 }