Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!samsung!umich!sharkey!fmsrl7!art-sy!news From: chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Misinterpretation of LUID was Re: SCO License security - another flame Message-ID: <9105241152.aa10661@art-sy.detroit.mi.us> Date: 24 May 91 15:52:33 GMT References: <1991May04.194857.12216@kithrup.COM> <1174@pemcom.pem-stuttgart.de> Reply-To: chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) Organization: Appropriate Roles for Technology Lines: 34 In article <1174@pemcom.pem-stuttgart.de> ralfi@pemcom.pem-stuttgart.de (Ralf U. Holighaus) writes: > >Ever heard of the crontab command? That correctly updates the cron tables >in the /usr/spool/cron/crontabs directory WITHOUT problems. Thats the clean >way. Not the quick'n dirty one. Try su'ing to the ID of a pseudo-user and using crontab to update that user's cron table. You can't do it. "You must run crontab under your login UID." A pseudo-user is, by definition, an account that no human ever logs directly into. To do something as a pseudo-user, a person has to log into an individual account and su to the pseudo-user, which leaves an audit trail. This is correct and sensible. Because crontab is broken, an individual who wants to update a pseudo-user's cron table must actually log in as that pseudo-user (there goes accountability) or manually replace the cron table. In the second case, the revisions will not take effect until cron restarts at the next reboot, because crontab is what signals cron to reread the table, and the user couldn't run it. And no, running crontab on the user's own table will not tell cron to reread all of the tables. o= The maddening thing is that the feature that breaks crontab, and is clearly counter to the design of the LUID and pseudo-user concepts, is something that was consciously added (i.e. and act of commission, not of omission) by someone unclear on the concept. -= -- Chap Flack Their tanks will rust. Our songs will last. chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us -MIKHS 0EODWPAKHS Nothing I say represents Appropriate Roles for Technology unless I say it does.