Date: Fri, 8 Aug 1997 15:50:50 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb> To: andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Root's Shell--Anything? Message-ID: <199708082250.PAA20019@hub.freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.970808145906.20518A-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> from "Annelise Anderson" at Aug 8, 97 03:06:37 pm
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Annelise Anderson wrote: > > Some recent postings have suggested that root's shell can be > anything--i.e., not limited to csh or sh. > > As I remember I once tried to change root's shell to tcsh and got > into a lot of trouble--enough so that I'm reluctant to experiment. > > I thought if root's shell, to run, required access to /usr, this > could be a problem if only / were mounted. yes, exactly. root's shell must be available to the system at all times. so you can boot single-user, so init can plop you into a shell if there is a startup problem. and root's shell should be statically linked to prevent all the security problems of dynamic linking. > > With su -m, of course, root gets the shell of the user as part of > the environment, so a change should not really be necessary. > > Clarification would be appreciated.
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