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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!gatech!mcnc!ncsuvx!abc
From: abc@ncsuvx.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Becoming ROOT on MINIX
Message-ID: <832@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: Wed, 20-May-87 13:38:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: ncsuvx.832
Posted: Wed May 20 13:38:48 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 22-May-87 01:14:53 EDT
References: <600@dutesta.UUCP>
Reply-To: abc@ncsuvx.UUCP (Alan B. Clegg)
Organization: Society for the furtherance of ... um ... er ...
Lines: 24
Keywords: protection minix

In article <600@dutesta.UUCP> mol@dutesta.UUCP (Marcel Mol) writes:
>	Login as a casual user
>	unmount the /usr filesystem ('/etc/umount /dev/fd0' if /usr is mounted
>				     on diskdrive 0)

This brings up a point that may have been discussed before, but I don't
remember it.  Why do 'casual users' get to mount and unmount disks?
This is a major problem with security on big systems, and seems to cause
more problems than it is worth on even the little ones!  Can't we check to
see if the person is superuser before mount/unmount requests are allowed?

This may cause problems when we are on a floppy only system, but would be
so much nicer for those of us with hard disks.

Would it be possible to allow mount and unmount of, say, the second unit
(/dev/fd1) to be mount/unmountable by the casual user?

-abc

ps:  How do you make the machine put the root stuff on the hard disk without
     loading it into /dev/ram?  I know somebody has said how to do this, but
     I don't have any archives..
-- 
	   Alan B. Clegg | NCSU Comp Center | abc@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu