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Date:      Fri, 22 Jun 2001 14:12:05 +0200
From:      Erik Trulsson <ertr1013@student.uu.se>
To:        Trond =?iso-8859-1?Q?Endrest=F8l?= <trond@ramstind.gtf.ol.no>
Cc:        FreeBSD stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: init and securelevel
Message-ID:  <20010622141205.A38969@student.uu.se>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.31.0106221310430.63400-100000@ramstind.gtf.ol.no>
References:  <Pine.BSF.4.31.0106221310430.63400-100000@ramstind.gtf.ol.no>

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On Fri, Jun 22, 2001 at 01:30:18PM +0200, Trond Endrest=F8l wrote:
> I run a server with securelevel set to 1.
>=20
> According to the man page for init, when securelevel is set to
> something greater than 0, then init arrange it so that securelevel is
> 0 when running single user, and then set to whatever you have in your
> /etc/rc.conf file when running multi user.

Almost. It is 0 when *booting* into single-user mode.
If you first go to multi-user mode and then drop into single-user mode
the securelevel will not be lowered.

>=20
> I noticed that this is no longer the case, shouldn't the man page be
> updated to reflect the new situation?
>=20

The manpage describes the situation correctly.
Note the part that says:

   Any super-user process can raise the security level, but no process
   can lower it.

init is a (super-user) process and can therefore raise the securelevel
but not lower it.


> Why is init no longer allowed to decrease the securelevel?
>=20

It has never been allowed to do that.  The *only* way to decrease the
securelevel is to reboot.

> It's rather inconvenient to edit /etc/rc.conf and set
> kern_securelevel_enable to NO and subsequently reboot the machine in
> order to do a buildworld followed by an installworld.

Yes, it is inconvenient.  Security and convenience are usually mutually
exclusive concepts.


>=20
> This is by the way on RELENG_3 (3.5-STABLE).
>=20
> Cvsup ran today just prior to today's first attempt to do a
> buildworld. After editing the /etc/rc.conf and rebooting, the
> buildworld runs just fine.
>=20




--=20
<Insert your favourite quote here.>
Erik Trulsson
ertr1013@student.uu.se


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