[no subject]

One warning though: sudo has had a LOT of security bugs reported against
it.  This means that there is a risk in allowing it on the system and
that one must, at least, keep up-to-date with respect to security patches.

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.verysecurelinux.com";>http://www.verysecurelinux.com</a>        [Network&amp;Linux/Unix security consulting]
<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com";>http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com</a> [My book:&quot;Real World Linux Security 2/e&quot;]
Quality Linux &amp; UNIX security and SysAdmin &amp; software consulting since 1990.

&quot;Microsoft: Unsafe at any clock speed!&quot;
   -- Bob Toxen 10/03/2002

On Tue, May 24, 2005 at 09:12:57AM -0400, Christopher Fowler wrote:
&gt; Running root does not kill the box.  The person running as root will.

&gt; I used to run as root.  Then I fubared an AIX RS/6000 because I ran tar
&gt; in the root directory.  Being a normal user would have saved me.  We
&gt; were down for 6 hours because of my mistake.  A UNIX box does not assume
&gt; the user is an idiot like Windows.  There are no confirmation dialogs
&gt; for rm, tar, and others.  A UNIX box will do exactly what you tell it to
&gt; do.  This is why you do not need to be root unless you are doing
&gt; administration to the box.  Linespire allowing root would scare me.  If
&gt; I was the support manager there I would be scared that my calls would
&gt; actually increase.  The whole idea of not running as root is not for
&gt; protection from hackers on the outside but for the protection from the
&gt; users on the inside.

&gt; Why is sudo not good enough?  If you need to run some program as root
&gt; then use sudo.  That is what it was designed for.


</pre>
<!--X-Body-of-Message-End-->
<!--X-MsgBody-End-->
<!--X-Follow-Ups-->
<hr>
<!--X-Follow-Ups-End-->
<!--X-References-->
<ul><li><strong>References</strong>:
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="00840" href="msg00840.html">[ale] Root vs Normal User</a></strong>
<ul><li><em>From:</em> cfowler at outpostsentinel.com (Christopher Fowler)</li></ul></li>
</ul></li></ul>
<!--X-References-End-->
<!--X-BotPNI-->
<ul>
<li>Prev by Date:
<strong><a href="msg00866.html">[ale] user friendly TIFF viewer?</a></strong>
</li>
<li>Next by Date:
<strong><a href="msg00868.html">[ale] Please help Drew fix his browser problem</a></strong>
</li>
<li>Previous by thread:
<strong><a href="msg00858.html">[ale] Root vs Normal User</a></strong>
</li>
<li>Next by thread:
<strong><a href="msg00866.html">[ale] user friendly TIFF viewer?</a></strong>
</li>
<li>Index(es):
<ul>
<li><a href="maillist.html#00867"><strong>Date</strong></a></li>
<li><a href="threads.html#00867"><strong>Thread</strong></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

<!--X-BotPNI-End-->
<!--X-User-Footer-->
<!--X-User-Footer-End-->
</body>
</html>