big brother in your cc

From: Darren Reed (avalonat_private)
Date: Mon Jun 14 1999 - 07:17:12 PDT

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    Whilst this isn't strictly speaking a security bug, it borders on
    Sun acting in a very "big brother" manner which is frightening!
    
    For those of you using Sun's SUNWspro C compiler package, beware!
    The binaries "c89" and "cc" appear to automagically send an email
    to "ut-ccat_private" with a list of C compiler commands,
    including some sort of cpu-time summary.  Extract as follows:
    
    INFO unix i86pc SunOS 5.7
    cc -E
    CPU-time 0.010000 0.010000
    ...
    cc -o -Xa -O
    CPU-time 0.000000 0.060000
    ...
    cc -o -Xa -O
    CPU-time 0.020000 0.050000
    
    and so on.  Setting the environment variable UT_NO_USAGE_TRACKING
    seems to do the right thing but for those that wish to enable this
    feature, check with strings on the available environment settings
    to mediate this (search for UT_).  The mail is set to originate from
    "nobody" so it's unlikely you'll notice it if it fails to be delivered
    unless you check your mail queue.
    



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