From owner-freebsd-security Sun Jun 24 14: 0:52 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org Received: from pltn13.pbi.net (mta8.pltn13.pbi.net [64.164.98.22]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A3CB337B409 for ; Sun, 24 Jun 2001 14:00:50 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from leonard@ssl.berkeley.edu) Received: from zeus.berkeley.edu ([206.170.1.101]) by mta8.pltn13.pbi.net (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.1 (built May 7 2001)) with ESMTP id <0GFG00A82D17K5@mta8.pltn13.pbi.net> for security@FreeBSD.ORG; Sun, 24 Jun 2001 14:00:48 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 14:11:54 -0700 From: Leonard Chung Subject: "Correct" permissions on /var/mail? X-Sender: leonard@chung.yikes.com (Unverified) To: security@FreeBSD.ORG Message-id: <5.1.0.14.2.20010624140225.02d492f0@chung.yikes.com> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Sender: owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org I was having a debate with a colleague the other day on the correct mode for /var/mail. He claimed that 1777 is more secure than what I've always had (the FreeBSD default of root:mail 775). 1777 gives you the additional benefit of protecting you from compromises on the mail group, but requires that on every machine quotas be installed even for machines with just one or two users. Without quotas, a malicious user could fill up /var/mail creating a DoS for everybody receiving mail off that machine. 775 doesn't protect against compromises of the mail group, but has the added benefit that it protects against a user filling /var/mail inadvertently as they would have to purposely send lots of e-mail. Which do most of you use? Is there a reason /var/mail is initially set to 775 rather than 1777? Thanks, Leonard -- Leonard Chung - SETI@home - The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence @ home http://www.setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message