Re: forkbombing Linux distributions

Jan Engelhardt
2005-03-24T07:15:07Z

>> >brings down almost all linux distro's while other *nixes survives.
>>
>> Let's see if this can be confirmed.
>
>open/free/netbsd survives. I guess OSX does too.

Confirmed. My OpenBSD install copes very well with forkbombs.
However, I _was able_ to spawn a lot of shells by default.
The essence is that the number of processes/threads within
a _session group_ (correct word?) is limited. That way, you can
start a ton of "/bin/sh"s from one another, i.e.:

\__ login jengelh
\__ /bin/sh
\__ /bin/sh
\__ /bin/sh
...

So I think that if you add a setsid() to your forkbomb,
you could once again be able to bring a system - BSD this time - down.
Just a guess at this time, I would need to write a prog first :p

Jan Engelhardt
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