Newsgroups: comp.bugs.4bsd
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: bin owns stuff (was: Installing 4.3-Tahoe on a VAX)
Message-ID: <1988Sep15.182719.16244@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <26049@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <5416@zodiac.UUCP> <21791@sgi.SGI.COM> <8481@smoke.ARPA> <4828@saturn.ucsc.edu>
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 88 18:27:19 GMT

In article <4828@saturn.ucsc.edu> haynes@ucscc.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) writes:
>Now a second related issue is why have all those binaries mode 755 or
>worse instead of 711, with 755 to be used only where needed? ...

Well, for one thing, it's awfully hard to run a debugger on a misbehaving
program when you can't read the binary.  711 can be done, but the headaches
outweigh the advantages for sites that aren't desperately concerned about
security.  (And surely you don't think that trying to keep the crackers
ignorant is going to help much -- they probably know more than you do
about your system's weaknesses.)
-- 
NASA is into artificial        |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
stupidity.  - Jerry Pournelle  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu