Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sun, 15 Nov 1998 19:22:24 +0100
From:      Andre Albsmeier <andre.albsmeier@mchp.siemens.de>
To:        Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com>, Andre Albsmeier <andre.albsmeier@mchp.siemens.de>
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Would this make FreeBSD more secure?
Message-ID:  <19981115192224.A29686@internal>
In-Reply-To: <199811151758.JAA15108@apollo.backplane.com>; from Matthew Dillon on Sun, Nov 15, 1998 at 09:58:22AM -0800
References:  <19981115161548.A23869@internal> <199811151758.JAA15108@apollo.backplane.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sun, Nov 15, 1998 at 09:58:22AM -0800, Matthew Dillon wrote:
> 
> :Hi,
> :
> :while installing xlockmore, I noticed that its mode is 4111 for root.
> :...
> :
> :Wouldn't it be generally a good idea to make the /etc/spwd.db and
> :the /etc/master.passwd file 640 and give them to a newly created
> :
> :root@voyager:~>ll /usr/X11R6/bin/xlock 
> :---x--s--x  1 root  pw  - 126976 Oct  1 08:17 /usr/X11R6/bin/xlock*
> :
> :What do you think? Will it make my systems more insecure with the
> :above stuff or not? If not, wouldn't it make sense to incorporate
> :the changes into FreeBSD? IMHO they break nothing since all programs
> :...
> :
> :	-Andre
> 
>     I think this is an excellent idea.  A similar method is used for
>     the 'operator' group, to allow the dumper to dump disks without
>     giving him write access to them.

OK, and I already thought it might be stupid/insecure/not_working doing
so because it's rather simple and nobody has come up with it before.
But with my paranoia about setuid root stuff, I finally decided
to ask now :-)

>     Another thing that would be nice would be to give certain user id's
>     the ability to listen on low-numbered sockets without giving the rest
>     of the users that ability.  
> 
>     Without going to full-blown capabilities, and adding a sysctl to turn
>     it on, I think we could reserve some gid_t values to mean certain
>     things.  For example, a user in group 0x80000001 would be allowed 
>     to bind to low-numbered ports.  A user in group 0x80000002 would be
>     allowed to chown files away in mode 01000 directories (allowing a
>     mode 01740 directories to be controlled by a non-root program, but 
>     accessible by users, aka /var/mail).  And so on.
> 
>     Immediate uses that I can see:
> 
> 	* bind		(has a user run mode, but then can't rebind on ifc
> 			changes)
> 	* sendmail	(currently run under user with special hacks only)
> 	* popper	(run as root)
> 	* imapd		(run as root)

At least with popper (although I use cucipop)  I think its difficult
because I deliver mail to my users homedirs.

> 	* xterm		(suid root for utmp access)

Yes, this is another candidate. Is the setuid root permission really only
used to access /var/run/utmp?

Let's see what the others say...

	-Andre

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19981115192224.A29686>