User-level instance of /bin in PATH

[Braden McDaniel]

On Wed, 2011-07-27 at 09:11 +0200, Nicolas Mailhot wrote: 
> Le mercredi 27 juillet 2011 à 00:01 -0400, Braden McDaniel a écrit :
> 
> > Can someone explain (or point to) the rationale appending these to PATH
> > rather than prepending them?  I would have expected user binaries to
> > supersede system ones.
> 
> Security. You can do all kinds of mischief by overriding an (audited)
> system command with a user-level command (even appending is IMHO
> borderline dangerous till the usual infection/attack vectors, MUAs &
> browsers have not been taught to triple-check and flag anything going
> there)

Oh.  So, user account-level security for user accounts that have already
been compromised.

Right.  Say no more.

-- 
Braden McDaniel <braden at endoframe.com>