From: Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org>
To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society <tuhs@tuhs.org>
Subject: Re: [TUHS] Who's behind the UNIX filesystem permission
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2019 07:23:25 +1000 (EST) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1908020714480.38830@aneurin.horsfall.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <201908011235.x71CZP2B035023@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
On Thu, 1 Aug 2019, Doug McIlroy wrote:
> A common failing of Unix administration was a proliferation of suid-root
> programs, e.g. mail(1). I recall one system that had a hundred such
> programs. Sudo provided a way station between suid and ACLs.
I've always maintained that if you think you need setuid root (which is a
gaping chest wound), you can invariably get away with setgid instead.
ObTrivia: Back in the 80s, some third-party software needed to be
installed under "root". I was suspicious, but I had little choice but to
allow it (manager's orders; that company went under shortly after I left
them). Eventually I discovered why, when I had to clean up the mess: it
actually *unlinked* directories; yes, you read that right...
-- Dave
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-08-01 21:24 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 23+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2019-08-01 12:35 Doug McIlroy
2019-08-01 16:22 ` John P. Linderman
2019-08-01 16:35 ` Arthur Krewat
2019-08-02 8:35 ` [TUHS] Additional groups and additional directory permissions arnold
2019-08-02 11:18 ` Tony Finch
2019-08-04 6:40 ` arnold
2019-08-02 12:45 ` Arthur Krewat
2019-08-02 13:06 ` Clem Cole
2019-08-02 13:28 ` Clem Cole
2019-08-02 19:00 ` Thomas Paulsen
2019-08-01 17:01 ` [TUHS] Who's behind the UNIX filesystem permission Nemo Nusquam
2019-08-01 18:26 ` Arthur Krewat
2019-08-01 20:14 ` Lyndon Nerenberg
2019-08-01 21:23 ` Dave Horsfall [this message]
2019-08-01 23:43 Noel Chiappa
2019-08-02 1:03 ` David Arnold
2019-08-02 4:36 ` Rob Pike
2019-08-07 2:35 ` Dave Horsfall
2019-08-02 14:35 Noel Chiappa
2019-08-02 15:01 ` Clem Cole
2019-08-02 15:17 ` Arthur Krewat
2019-08-02 21:23 ` Dave Horsfall
2019-08-03 12:51 ` Nemo
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