From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: riel@surriel.com (Rik van Riel)
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:23:32 -0500
Subject: Does Linux process exist information leakage?
In-Reply-To: <ff80b878-eadf-4644-a84b-072a1e0563b0@email.android.com>
References: <CAMjnu2camLaZd3fU4Ar_dD61sgKr79Bo21r89P8Kaj_fLDq3eA@mail.gmail.com>
	<ff80b878-eadf-4644-a84b-072a1e0563b0@email.android.com>
Message-ID: <4F187BC4.4040001@surriel.com>
To: kernelnewbies@lists.kernelnewbies.org
List-Id: kernelnewbies.lists.kernelnewbies.org

On 01/11/2012 01:44 PM, Greg Freemyer wrote:

> When a linux process dies, it first becomes a zombie and the parent process is signaled.
>
> The parent process at that point can still do various things.  If the parent is a debugger, it can get all sorts of details from the zombie.
>
> When the parent acknowledges the death of child signal, the zombie is really killed and removed from the system tables, etc.

The memory of a process is freed before it becomes a zombie.