Q:

are my environment variables secure from other users on the system?

I hope the system doesn't matter as long as it's current, but I'm using Ubuntu 11.10 Server. Is there any way for any user y to see user x's environment variables? In other words, is it safe to store a password in an environment variable during an install script -- assuming that the user running the software is allowed to know it?

A:

It is possible to access environment variables reading file /proc/*PID*/environ. But it has the same credentials as the process it concerns to.

