From owner-freebsd-hackers Sat Jul 19 03:22:51 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id DAA17048 for hackers-outgoing; Sat, 19 Jul 1997 03:22:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from news1.gtn.com (news1.gtn.com [194.77.0.15]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id DAA17041 for ; Sat, 19 Jul 1997 03:22:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by news1.gtn.com (8.7.2/8.7.2) with UUCP id MAA04379; Sat, 19 Jul 1997 12:15:13 +0200 (MET DST) Received: (from andreas@localhost) by klemm.gtn.com (8.8.6/8.8.6) id MAA25991; Sat, 19 Jul 1997 12:08:27 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <19970719120826.19772@gtn.com> Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 12:08:26 +0200 From: Andreas Klemm To: sthaug@nethelp.no Cc: andreas@klemm.gtn.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: sendmail complains about being unable to write his pid file References: <19970718172709.25620@gtn.com> <15277.869305105@verdi.nethelp.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.76 In-Reply-To: <15277.869305105@verdi.nethelp.no>; from sthaug@nethelp.no on Sat, Jul 19, 1997 at 11:38:25AM +0200 X-Disclaimer: A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 3.0-CURRENT SMP Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Sat, Jul 19, 1997 at 11:38:25AM +0200, sthaug@nethelp.no wrote: > > I'm always nervous about directories owned by bin, on the assumption > that bin might be easier to break than root, and could then be used > as a stepstone to breaking root. I don't believe this, because bin isn't a password protected login. Look here: bin:*:3:7:Binaries Commands and Source,,,:/:/nonexistent > So I tend to manually change most system directories to be owned > by root. Since bin isn't an active login I'd vote to keep things as they are but only change the paths for programs like sendmail, that need special permissions. > *Why* are so many of the FreeBSD system directories owned by bin in > the standard distribution? I think it's a BSDism. bin is the UID and GID for Binaries, Commands and source as shown by the entry in /etc/passwd ... -- Andreas Klemm | klemm.gtn.com - powered by Symmetric MultiProcessor FreeBSD http://www.freebsd.org/~fsmp/SMP/SMP.html http://www.freebsd.org/~fsmp/SMP/benches.html