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Date:      Mon, 6 Jul 1998 17:11:22 -0500 (CDT)
From:      Joel Ray Holveck <joelh@gnu.org>
To:        jkh@time.cdrom.com
Cc:        smoergrd@oslo.geco-prakla.slb.com, tarkhil@asteroid.svib.ru, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: xf86OpenConsole: KDENABIO failed (Operation not permitted)
Message-ID:  <199807062211.RAA09001@detlev.UUCP>
In-Reply-To: <26015.899757973@time.cdrom.com> (jkh@time.cdrom.com)
References:   <26015.899757973@time.cdrom.com>

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>> Most things that are disallowed under securelevel 1 are things that
>> aren't frequently done except during rc, a system install, or an
>> attack.  But running X is a normal operation.  I'd classify it as a
>> bug myself.
> Actually, running X is not a "normal" operation at all - it performs
> inb/outb instructions and does various privileged bits of syscons
> frobbing that could be potentially quite hazardous in the hands of the
> deliberately malicious.  Running an X server should be a conscious
> compromise of certain types of security.

While I will agree that it does not run in a normal manner, it is not
an infrequent operation.

I was about to continue that paragraph, when the question occurred:
Are there no other userland programs (besides wine and doscmd) that do
these ops?

(Mind you, I'm not arguing that this should be fixed; we just don't
have the people to fix every nit.  I'm arguing that it's a Bad Thing.)

Happy hacking,
joelh

-- 
Joel Ray Holveck - joelh@gnu.org - http://www.wp.com/piquan
   Fourth law of programming:
   Anything that can go wrong wi
sendmail: segmentation violation - core dumped

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