[SunHELP] Re: SunHELP digest, Vol 1 #1541 - 6 msgs

[Dennis Murphy]

On Mon, 25 Feb 2002 sunhelp-request at sunhelp.org wrote:
> From: Edward Chase <echase at postoffice.providence.edu>
> Subject: Re: [SunHELP] error when applying patch
> Reply-To: sunhelp at sunhelp.org
>
> If anyone is interested, this patch was successfully installed only after
> installing from /tmp.  A suggestion from Sun support.
>
> This was on a Solaris 8 machine.  I was able to install the equivalent
> Solaris 7 patch from my own home directory.
>
> >I'm trying to apply a patch for the recently announced snmp exploit.
> >
> >I'm getting the following error...
> >
> ># more /var/sadm/patch/108869-15/log
> >
> >This appears to be an attempt to install the same architecture and
> >version of a package which is already installed.  This installation
> >will attempt to overwrite this package.
> >
> >/export/home/echase/108869-15/SUNWmibii/install/checkinstall:
> >/export/home/echa
> >se/108869-15/SUNWmibii/install/checkinstall: cannot open
> >pkgadd: ERROR: checkinstall script did not complete successfully
> >Dryrun complete.
> >No changes were made to the system.

The reason for this is Solaris Administrivia Question #1489148482:
The patchadd script executes as the "nobody" user.  If you put the patch
directory somewhere that the nobody user can't read (like, say, your home
directory. :-) it'll fail on the checkinstall script...  You also need to
check directory traversals as well;  About a zillion times, I've created a
/tmp/patch directory and had my umask set to 077.  That ain't gonna work. :-)

That's why moving it to /tmp worked for you!  Glad you got the patch
installed!

Best of luck...

--DM