Re: mcedit

[Ben <2blkbelt nemontel net>]

On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 10:07 AM, Neil Walker <neil ep mine nu> wrote:

> > On occasion, I run into a file with ^M at the end of a line in MCEDIT.
> Those are DOS format files. Just "Save As" and select "Unix format".

Neil, I know exactly why the ^M's are there; I've been prodding bytes
since 1972.

But saving doesn't solve the problem. Some of these files can't be
saved -- they are read only, source code that has been inserted as
part of a hack attempt. I need to get the ^M's out of the way for
readability, but I can't write the file back (and I don't want to "su"
and change the file status from RO; the whole point is that once it's
been inserted into the system, by having fiddled the permissions, it
can't be replaced with one of the same name and having a deactivated
one present outright breaks a lot of hacks. Most of them, in fact.)
Studying them remains very important to me, though, as understanding
what they're up to is a clear window into what and where
vulnerabilities lie.

So I have this need to be able to modify the file in the editor.

Is there truly no way to search for ^M or other embedded control characters?