From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 14 02:51:22 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5139116A418; Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:51:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from minshall@acm.org) Received: from einstein.cliq.org (einstein.cliq.org [131.161.246.13]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 419A513C467; Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:51:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from minshall@acm.org) Received: from gregtx.cliq.com (minshall@localhost.cliq.org [IPv6:::1]) by einstein.cliq.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id lAE2pKfv017668; Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:51:20 -0800 (PST) Received: from gregtx (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by gregtx.cliq.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7A6835DC5; Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:50:39 -0800 (PST) X-Mailer: exmh version 2.7.2 01/07/2005 with nmh-1.2 From: Greg Minshall To: Garrett Cooper In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:24:19 PST." <47389A53.20207@u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:50:39 -0800 Sender: minshall@acm.org Message-Id: <20071114025039.7A6835DC5@gregtx.cliq.com> Cc: ports@freebsd.org, Doug Barton , Stefan Sperling Subject: Re: [PATCH] portmaster with SU_CMD X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:51:22 -0000 this died down while i was disconnected, and i don't want to fan flames, but two minor points: 1. the issue of how much of the time to run as root is one of personal preference (aesthetics, religion, if you prefer). a lot of people are happy having windows logged in as root up all the time; other people want to be root as little as possible. 2. if someone can hack my personal account, they can control the machine by setting up trapdoors (that probably i, at least, wouldn't notice until it was too late). that means 2 things: a) the security problems Garrett pointed out in being able to compile as non-root aren't really an issue, since, again, if they become me, it's all over. b) to a large extent, the security issues i might worry about leaving root windows on my machine aren't really an issue, because i leave *me* on my machine, and, again, if they become me, it's all over. (but, again, for *me*, it's mostly principle/aesthetics/religion [in addition to trying to protect the machine from my own fumble fingers].) all this without arguing for the portmaster changes one way or the other, as i don't know or use portmaster. cheers, Greg