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From: csg@pyramid.UUCP (Carl S. Gutekunst)
Newsgroups: net.sources
Subject: USERFILE(4) Man Page
Message-ID: <561@pyramid.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Aug-86 17:00:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyramid.561
Posted: Thu Aug  7 17:00:24 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Aug-86 09:07:40 EDT
Reply-To: csg@pyramid.UUCP (Carl S. Gutekunst)
Followup-To: net.sources.d
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 182
Keywords: UUCP USERFILE

Since user problems with UUCP's USERFILE seem to be rampant on the net, as a
public service I'm posting Pyramid's USERFILE man pages for both the BSD and
the System VR2.2 implementations of UUCP. I wrote 'em from scratch, and take
all responsibility for incompleteness or inaccuracies. (Style comments *are*
welcome.)

Note, these do not apply to the HoneyDanBer or Ultrix UUCP versions.

Carl S. Gutekunst   {allegra,cmcl2,decwrl,hplabs,ut-sally,utzoo}!pyramid!csg
Pyramid Technology Corp, Mountain View, CA  +1 415 965 7200
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.TH USERFILE 4
.SH NAME
USERFILE \- \s-1UUCP\s0 pathname permissions file
.SH ORIGIN
System V
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I USERFILE
specifies the file system directory trees that are accessible to
local users and to remote systems via \s-1UUCP\s0.
.PP
Each line in
.I USERFILE
is of the form:
.PP
.nf
[loginname]\fB,\fP[system] [ \fBc\fP ] pathname pathname pathname ...
.fi
.PP
The first two items are separated by a comma; any number of spaces or
tabs may separate the remaining items.
Lines beginning with a `#' character are comments.
.PP
.I Loginname
is a login (from
.IR /etc/passwd )
on the local machine.
Every login name that is used by remote systems to connect for \s-1UUCP\s0
transfers must be listed.
.PP
.I System
is the name of a remote machine, the same name used in
.IR L.sys (4).
.PP
.I c
denotes the optional
.I callback
field.
If a \fBc\fP appears here, a remote machine that calls in will be told
that callback is requested, and the conversation will be terminated.
The local system will then immediately call the remote host back.
.PP
.I Pathname
is a pathname prefix that is permissible for this
.I login
and/or
.IR system .
.PP
When
.IR uucico (1M)
runs in master role or
.IR uucp (1C)
or
.IR uux (1C)
are run by local users, the permitted pathnames are those on the
first line with a
.I loginname
that matches the name of the user who executed the command.
If no such line exists, then the first line with a null (missing)
.I loginname
field is used.
(Beware:
.I uucico
is often run by the superuser or the \s-1UUCP\s0 administrator through
.IR cron (1M).)
.PP
When
.I uucico
runs in slave role, the permitted pathnames are those on the
first line with a
.I system
field that matches the hostname of the remote machine.
If no such line exists, then the first line with a null (missing)
.I system
field is used.
.PP
.IR Uuxqt (1M)
works differently; it knows neither a login name nor a hostname.
It accepts the pathnames on the first line that has a null
.I system 
field.
(This is the same line that is used by
.I uucico
when it cannot match the remote machine's hostname.)
.PP
A line with both
.I loginname
and
.I system
null, for example
.IP
.B ,	/usr/spool/uucppublic
.PP	
is termed a "null line."
It specifies the paths for whichever of the "unknown login name" 
or the "unknown hostname" cases was not defined earlier in the file.
If neither has been defined, then only the "unknown login name" case
will be defined.
Note that it is unacceptable to have a
.I USERFILE
consisting of nothing but a "null line";
this will leave the "unknown hostname" case undefined and will cause
.I uuxqt
to reject all requests.
.SH FILES
.ta \w'/usr/lib/uucp/UUAIDS/USERFILE   'u
.nf
/usr/lib/uucp/USERFILE
.fi
.SH SEE ALSO
uucp(1C), uux(1C), L.cmds(4), L.sys(4), uucico(1M), uuxqt(1M)
.SH NOTES
The \s-1UUCP\s0 utilities
.RI ( uucico ,
.IR uucp ,
.IR uux ,
and
.IR uuxqt )
always have access to the \s-1UUCP\s0 spool files in
.IR /usr/spool/uucp ,
regardless of pathnames in
.IR USERFILE .
.PP
If
.B uucp
is listed in
.IR L.cmds (4),
then a remote system will execute
.I uucp 
on the local system with the
.I USERFILE
privileges for its
.IR login ,
not its hostname.
.PP
.I Uucico
freely switches between master and slave roles during the course of a
conversation, regardless of the role with which it was started.
This affects how
.I USERFILE
is interpreted.
.SH WARNING
.I USERFILE
restricts access only on strings that the \s-1UUCP\s0 utilities identify
as being pathnames.
If the wrong holes are left in other \s-1UUCP\s0 control files (notably
.IR L.cmds ),
it can be easy for an intruder to open files anywhere in the file system.
Arguments to
.IR uucp (1C)
are safe, since it assumes all of its non-option arguments are file names.
.IR Uux (1C)
cannot make such assumptions; hence, it is more dangerous.
.SH BUGS
The current user's name is determined via the
.IR getpwent (3C)
function call; hence, if several names are assigned to a single UID,
the first name encountered in
.I /etc/passwd
will be used.
.PP
Older versions of
.IR uuxqt (1M)
erroneously check \s-1UUCP\s0 spool files against the USERFILE pathname
permissions.
Hence, on these systems it is necessary to specify
.I /usr/spool/uucp
as a valid path on the USERFILE line used by
.IR uuxqt .
Otherwise, all
.IR uux (1C)
requests are rejected with a "PERMISSION DENIED" message.