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Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 23:30:03 +1100 (EST)
From: Andrew <andrew@sally.ugh.net.au>
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Subject: conf/3023: msgs - permission denied.
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>Number:         3023
>Category:       conf
>Synopsis:       By default users have no write permission to /var/msgs
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Mar 18 08:30:03 PST 1997
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Andrew
>Organization:
>Release:        FreeBSD 2.2-RELEASE i386
>Environment:

Fresh 2.2-R install.

>Description:

When running msgs it checks the file /var/msgs/bounds to quickly see if there are any new messages. If the file doesn't exist then msgs creates it. Unfortunately only when run by root does msgs have permission to create this file - everyone else gets an error until root runs msgs.

>How-To-Repeat:

Type msgs on a 2.2-R system.

>Fix:
	
Many ways I guess:

1) Change permissions on /var/msgs to allow anyone to write to it (not a good idea)

2) Make msgs set-uid to someone with permissions to write to /var/msgs (probably not to good either)

3) Have the installer create a bounds file (not sure if you can do this if there aren't any messages - I guess you could say last msg was -1 or 0 depending on how they are numbered).

There are probably oher ways (from my list I prefer 3). I don't know what the 'proper' method is.
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: