Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 30 May 1997 09:48:43 -0700 (MST)
From:      Don Yuniskis <dgy@rtd.com>
To:        joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: uucp uid's
Message-ID:  <199705301648.JAB07926@seagull.rtd.com>
In-Reply-To: <19970530085744.UT50834@uriah.heep.sax.de> from "J Wunsch" at May 30, 97 08:57:44 am

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> > > I don't think there's a burning need why all the uucpers should have
> > > the same UID, but i figure it doesn't hurt either.
> > 
> > It's nicer if they have different uid's -- lets you be a bit more
> > restrictive of the types of access you grant to each.  Also lets
> > you see who's doing what...
> 
> I think it's more of a ``It must be better, since my teacher tought
> me that each login needs a unque UID.'' argument.

Why not put all shell users under one login?  :>

> UUCP tracks activities by system name anyway.  You can even get away
> with a single login name for all peers, but they gotta share the same
> password then (which is undesirable).  These accounts are only
> supposed to run /usr/libexec/uucp/uucico, so the ``who's doing what''
> argument is also a moot point.  UUCP access restrictions are also
> placed per system, not per account.

A system can freely masquerade as any other -- including systems that
you *don't* want to give access to (i.e. your single account's password
has been compromised intententionally/unintentionally).  Especially when
the other system may be a DOS box running UUPC, etc.  :>

"Who's doing what" is intended to deal with "who's flooding me with
mail" or "where's this spam originating".  With a single account,
you have to explicitly trust *all* of those users *and* anyone else
who's snuck in with them.  When you want to disallow access to a particular
system, you have to change the password used by *all* systems and
inform the systems that can continue to access of this change, etc.

If each UUCP dialup account has a unique login and that is compromised, you
can tell exactly where the problem originated, can disable that *single*
account (vs. *all* of them) without affecting service to other accounts
and can go in search of how the problem originated in the first place.

> The only argument that made sense so far was somebody who wanted to
> run process accounting for them.

UUCP itself is a dinosaur.  Yet, I see several places that use UUCP as 
their sole connection to the electronic world.  Kinda tough to force
a client/customer to do things *your* way when *he's* paying the bills!  :>

--don



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199705301648.JAB07926>