During my OS research

[K.I.L.E.R]

I just found this:

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=The quickest way to crash Windows NT/2000/XP

 

[_xxx_]

Kinda neat. I'll have to to show it to my colleagues. On their machines

 

[suryad]

Kinda neat. I'll have to to show it to my colleagues. On their machines

lol kinda along the lines of what I was thinking there...

 

[suryad]

Oh and on another note, K.I.L.E.R. your OS research sounds intriguing...any specifics you can talk about?

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

Oh and on another note, K.I.L.E.R. your OS research sounds intriguing...any specifics you can talk about?

I'll post it up after I hand it in and have the teachers permission.
Oh and because I started it at the last minute it's a little rough.

 

[suryad]

haahha no worries i just wanted to know what the topic is besides that it is on OSes. But thanks it will be an interesting and no doubt an educational read.

 

[Blazkowicz]

it's actually easier to crash linux :

main(){while(1)fork();}

no need to download a compiler, you already have gcc.
I tried this, instant lockup on fedora core 3 at the university.

 

[suryad]

Wow so it will just keep creating new processes on top of new processes until it probably runs out of memory and other resources eh?

 

[Frank]

it's actually easier to crash linux :

main(){while(1)fork();}

no need to download a compiler, you already have gcc.
I tried this, instant lockup on fedora core 3 at the university.

Did you try a (SSH) terminal connection? Best way to interact and restore the box when it goes bad. I think that would still work.

 

[mito]

KILER, we'd like to read your assignment.

Thanks.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Wow so it will just keep creating new processes on top of new processes until it probably runs out of memory and other resources eh?

yeah, that's stupid but effective 8)

it's actually easier to crash linux :

main(){while(1)fork();}

no need to download a compiler, you already have gcc.
I tried this, instant lockup on fedora core 3 at the university.

Did you try a (SSH) terminal connection? Best way to interact and restore the box when it goes bad. I think that would still work.

I don't know if I can ssh into these boxes (for desktop use, and I'm a mere user). this was under gnome BTW.
I still don't have linux at home so I can't try
Symptoms were : just freezed, mouse cursor and keyboard LEDs not responding
Also I don't know if you would be able to kill those millions of self-duplicating processes

 

[suryad]

I am surprised that no one thought of putting a little mathematical power to use and figure out given the resources of the sytem running Linux how many processes it would take to kill the computer? Wow this sound like one of those how many *insert profession here* does it take to screw in a light bulb kind of jokes...hehe

 

[Blazkowicz]

wirh twenty iterations you already have more than one million processes

I'd wish to test this at the university on my Unix session (Solaris 8 application server, serving dozens of user for programmation exercises and web surfing/star office / networked tetris ^^). I'd like to see if that kills only my session, or bring down everything, or if Solaris detect and terminates the fork bomb.
But for some obvious reason I don't think I'll try it

 

[suryad]

lol @ Blazkowicz

I have known people at my unviersity upon a system crash on the Linux machines to simply hit the reboot button!! God knows how many people got f***ed who were remotely logged in and working on cirtical projects and assignments. Yikes!

 

[Saem]

You can lock the number of processes a user is allowed.

 

[passby]

You can lock the number of processes a user is allowed.

Very easily too.

Fedora and many other distros(with marked exception of BSDs and Debian) succumb to fork bombs easily as they default to being configured as a personal workstation. Heck Fedora's philosophy makes it unsuitable as a production OS. Not sure what happens if Server options are selected during install...