From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 30 03:57:35 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 97E3A16A4CE for ; Wed, 30 Mar 2005 03:57:35 +0000 (GMT) Received: from delight.idiom.com (delight.idiom.com [216.240.32.16]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6219643D2D for ; Wed, 30 Mar 2005 03:57:35 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mwm-dated-1113019053.3ffb1c@mired.org) Received: from idiom.com (idiom.com [216.240.32.1]) by delight.idiom.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C30E119C920 for ; Tue, 29 Mar 2005 19:57:34 -0800 (PST) Received: from mired.org (mwm@idiom [216.240.32.1]) by idiom.com (8.12.11/8.12.11) with SMTP id j2U3vXMf019787 for ; Tue, 29 Mar 2005 19:57:34 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mwm-dated-1113019053.3ffb1c@mired.org) Received: (qmail 85041 invoked by uid 1001); 30 Mar 2005 03:57:33 -0000 Received: by guru.mired.org (tmda-sendmail, from uid 1001); Tue, 29 Mar 2005 21:57:32 -0600 (CST) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <16970.9131.32691.306914@guru.mired.org> Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 21:57:31 -0600 To: "H. S." In-Reply-To: <61910.81.84.174.37.1112123946.squirrel@mail.revolutionsp.com> References: <61910.81.84.174.37.1112123946.squirrel@mail.revolutionsp.com> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.4 (patch 16) "Corporate Culture" XEmacs Lucid X-Primary-Address: mwm@mired.org X-face: "5Mnwy%?j>IIV\)A=):rjWL~NB2aH[}Yq8Z=u~vJ`"(,&SiLvbbz2W`; h9L,Yg`+vb1>RG% *h+%X^n0EZd>TM8_IB;a8F?(Fb"lw'IgCoyM.[Lg#r\ X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.0.3 (Seattle Slew) From: Mike Meyer X-Mailman-Approved-At: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 13:10:27 +0000 cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A few thoughts.. X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 03:57:35 -0000 In <61910.81.84.174.37.1112123946.squirrel@mail.revolutionsp.com>, H. S. typed: > My "USERNAME" account doesn't have access to /sbin/dmesg, but I uploaded a > /sbin/dmesg from a 5.2.1-RELEASE to a 5.3-STABLE box, and then I could > have access to this system information. The same goes for systat , vmstat, > and all these commands that (most people think) shouldn't be available for > regular users. I wouldn't say "most people think" those things shouldn't be available for regular users, because that's the first time in 25 years of managing Unix systems that I've run into that sentiment. What I'm really curious about is what makes you think FreeBSD itself tries to enforce your opinion. I'm running 5.3-STABLE built from fresh install of 5.3-RELEASE, haven't done anything to any of those binaries, and they are all world/group executable on my system. That means that there's no way to prevent any user from running them. dmesg isn't in the normal $PATH, but that's not an indication that users shouldn't be able to run it, merely that they aren't expected to need it. http://www.mired.org/consulting.html Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.