Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 7:34 am Post subject: "find" unix command running by itself
Something strange happened to my G5.
The "find" unix command started running by itself in the background.
I noticed intense disk activity and brough up top and instantly saw "find" actively running. What it was trying to find I have no idea.
I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.7 using FileVault with Spotlight turned off.
The only network service open was Windows Sharing. I use the application EasyFind to find my files but that is not suppose to run any kind of indexing service.
I immediately turned off Windows Sharing and disconnected my Ethernet.
I ran ps -aux but by the time I did it, the find command had already stopped.
I checked my logs (console, system, smb) but nothing out of the ordinary appeared.
I'm a Mac Specialist at a University but I don't recall any Macs having "find" start to run for no reason. Any ideas?
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 16777097 Location: Portugal
Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:02 am Post subject:
Hello, mk2000, welcome to SFDC!
One possible reason for commands running without interaction is if they're being run by the cron daemon. Have you checked any cron jobs you might have? There could be some script that uses "find" to do something.
Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:56 am Post subject: A couple of extra options
Hi Fernando,
It could be possible that the 'locate' command was building a locate database on one of the Windows shares and the termination of the connection prevented it from completing it's task (although it may not use 'find' to do this).
The other extreme possibility is that there might be a bug in Apple's SMB implementation similar to the one that has recently been patched in Windows and someone has connected from within the University network and somehow gained shell access (this would make it much worse than the Windows issue if it was the case, as Windows was only a DoS, not arbitrary code exec.).
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum