Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Restricting article posting with C News...
Message-ID: <1991Jan11.224837.17314@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1991Jan9.201748.4682@zoo.toronto.edu> <3113@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1991Jan10.213702.9298@zoo.toronto.edu> <1991Jan11.002040.25338@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 1991 22:48:37 GMT

In article <1991Jan11.002040.25338@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
> Perhaps my brain had a core dump, or something, but I don't understand what
>all the fuss is about.  C-news doesn't work (for posting articles) without
>invoking some setuid programs such as 'relaynews' and 'newsspool'.  If the
>group permissions are used to control who can search $NEWSBIN/relay and
>$NEWSBIN/input, won't the problem be easily solved?

If it is possible to set permissions in a suitable way, yes.  The problem
is that the number of groups a user can belong to is very limited -- on
System V, it's 1 -- and it may not be practical to use group permissions
for detailed control of access.

There are also back doors into the news system, e.g. by the equivalent of
"uux - thissite!rnews <file", that make somebody else (uucp) do the dirty
deed for you.
-- 
If the Space Shuttle was the answer,   | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
what was the question?                 |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry