Evaluation order of $PATH variable and why its important to understand.

I recently came across a default SLES installation which has the following $PATH: (truncated for clarity) /sbin:/usr/sbin/:${HOME}/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/:/usr/local/bin ………. This at first glance appears as a security problem , as a malevolant user can add $HOME/bin/ls and a user can execute a different ls or other arbitrary command that does something totally different. However, changing the …

Evaluation order of $PATH variable and why its important to understand. Read More »