The /usr/sbin/print/netprint program is used by the printing system installed on all SGI systems. netprint has system("disable") call, i.e. it calls a program without specifying absolute path. At the moment the call is made, uid=lp. So lp priorities can be trivially obtained. /usr/lib/print/netprint -n blah -h blah -p blah 1-234 and whatever program named disable is first in the PATH will be executed as lp. However, one can go further if BSD printing subsystem is installed. /usr/spool/lpd is owned by lp, and it's the place where lpd writes lock file. lpd is also root/suid. So one replaces /usr/spool/lpd/lpd.lock with a symlink to /etc/passwd and runs lpd, passwd gets nuked. Then one repeats netprint trick, and, voila, disable now runs as root, because lp is not found in passwd. Credit for this goes to Yuri Volobuev.