Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!unmvax!turing.cs.unm.edu!mike
From: mike@turing.cs.unm.edu (Michael I. Bushnell)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers
Subject: Re: administration fascism
Message-ID: <2264@unmvax.unm.edu>
Date: 4 Feb 89 21:53:51 GMT
References: <412@execu.UUCP> <7094@xanth.cs.odu.edu> <412@avsd.UUCP> <1715@helios.ee.lbl.gov> <445@avsd.UUCP> <2253@unmvax.unm.edu> <608@uva.UUCP>
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Reply-To: mike@turing.cs.unm.edu (Michael I. Bushnell)
Organization: University of No Money, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Lines: 31

In article <608@uva.UUCP> dik@uva.UUCP (Casper H.S. Dik) writes:

>Hmmm... you must trust your users very much.
>People can not only steal other peoples mail, but can add an alias like
>myalias: |/myhome/myprogram

Our goal for security is to prevent users from doing accidental
damage.  We can restore the system from tape in a matter of
hours--with little loss of data.  The offending person is easily
determined, and we can easily use administrative means to can them.  

>The program /myhome/myprogram will be executed with the uid sendmail uses
>for untrusted mailers. If it is daemon (it is on my systems) the user
>could then 'do some things I will not disclose here' and become root
>in a matter of minutes.

In the interests of letting people know what we mean, you could, for
example, modify the atq and have jobs executed as root.  The atq is,
on most systems, owned by daemon, so daemon can modify it and have
jobs run under any uid.

>At that point he can do more damage to your system than you can repair
>in the time saved by letting your users edit /usr/lib/aliases.

As I said, not too much damage.  We don't worry.  Administrative
control is far better than online security.

  Michael I. Bushnell       \     This above all; to thine own self be true
         GIG!                \    And it must follow, as the night the day,
mike@turing.cs..unm.edu      /\   Thou canst not be false to any man.
  Hmmmm..............       /  \  Farewell:  my blessing season this in thee!