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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
setreuid — set real and effective user IDs
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int setreuid(uid_t ruid, uid_t euid);
DESCRIPTION
The setreuid() function shall set the real and effective user IDs of the current process to the values
specified by the ruid and euid arguments. If ruid or euid is -1, the corresponding effective or real user
ID of the current process shall be left unchanged.
A process with appropriate privileges can set either ID to any value. An unprivileged process can only
set the effective user ID if the euid argument is equal to either the real, effective, or saved user ID
of the process.
If the real user ID is being set (ruid is not -1), or the effective user ID is being set to a value not
equal to the real user ID, then the saved set-user-ID of the current process shall be set equal to the
new effective user ID.
It is unspecified whether a process without appropriate privileges is permitted to change the real user
ID to match the current effective user ID or saved set-user-ID of the process.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, 0 shall be returned. Otherwise, -1 shall be returned and errno set to
indicate the error.
ERRORS
The setreuid() function shall fail if:
EINVAL The value of the ruid or euid argument is invalid or out-of-range.
EPERM The current process does not have appropriate privileges, and either an attempt was made to change
the effective user ID to a value other than the real user ID or the saved set-user-ID or an
attempt was made to change the real user ID to a value not permitted by the implementation.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Setting the Effective User ID to the Real User ID
The following example sets the effective user ID of the calling process to the real user ID, so that
files created later will be owned by the current user. It also sets the saved set-user-ID to the real
user ID, so any future attempt to set the effective user ID back to its previous value will fail.
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
...
setreuid(getuid(), getuid());
...
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
Earlier versions of this standard did not specify whether the saved set-user-ID was affected by
setreuid() calls. This version specifies common existing practice that constitutes an important security
feature. The ability to set both the effective user ID and saved set-user-ID to be the same as the real
user ID means that any security weakness in code that is executed after that point cannot result in
malicious code being executed with the previous effective user ID. Privileged applications could already
do this using just setuid(), but for non-privileged applications the only standard method available is to
use this feature of setreuid().
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
getegid(), geteuid(), getgid(), getuid(), setegid(), seteuid(), setgid(), setregid(), setuid()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, <unistd.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard
for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document.
The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2017 SETREUID(3POSIX)