From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed May 11 17:26:29 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1BE2D16A4CE for ; Wed, 11 May 2005 17:26:29 +0000 (GMT) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (dan.emsphone.com [199.67.51.101]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B09AB43D1F for ; Wed, 11 May 2005 17:26:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: (from dan@localhost) by dan.emsphone.com (8.13.1/8.13.3) id j4BHQQaL083619; Wed, 11 May 2005 12:26:26 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan) Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 12:26:26 -0500 From: Dan Nelson To: David Bear Message-ID: <20050511172626.GB2567@dan.emsphone.com> References: <20050511165506.GC10213@asu.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20050511165506.GC10213@asu.edu> X-OS: FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE X-message-flag: Outlook Error User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.8i cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: user owned groups X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 17:26:29 -0000 In the last episode (May 11), David Bear said: > Apoligies in advance but searches based on keyword were too > voluminous. > > I've noticed that with some Linux distributions the default behavior > of creating user accounts created the group with the same name as the > user, and made that group the primary group of the user. There are > other linux distributions that the throw all users into a default > group named users. > > Freebsd does the first. Assuming that Freebsd was designed to be more > secure from the start, I am assuming that creating a group for each > user was also deemed a security plus. > > Are there any documents explaining the reasoning behind this? Both systems should be equally secure. The BSD way is a bit more flexible in that you can allow user A access to user B's home directories by putting user A in group B. Good for allowing teachers access to student directories (but only the ones taking their classes), or delegating access while an employee is on vacation. -- Dan Nelson dnelson@allantgroup.com