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Date:      Thu, 23 Aug 2001 22:46:00 +0100
From:      Brian Somers <brian@Awfulhak.org>
To:        Mike Silbersack <silby@silby.com>
Cc:        Brian Somers <brian@Awfulhak.org>, Matt Dillon <dillon@earth.backplane.com>, Chris Dillon <cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us>, "Andrey A. Chernov" <ache@nagual.pp.ru>, Jun Kuriyama <kuriyama@imgsrc.co.jp>, cvs-committers@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG, brian@freebsd-services.com, brian@freebsd-services.com
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/etc/defaults rc.conf src/etc/mtree BSD.var.dist src/etc/namedb named.conf 
Message-ID:  <200108232146.f7NLk1g88405@hak.lan.Awfulhak.org>
In-Reply-To: Message from Mike Silbersack <silby@silby.com>  of "Thu, 23 Aug 2001 17:18:32 EDT." <Pine.BSF.4.30.0108231705050.76401-100000@niwun.pair.com> 

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> 
> On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Brian Somers wrote:
> 
> > > 2.  rc.conf is amended with some fancy shell scripting that mails root and
> > > says "You're not using sandboxing!  Read this url and figure it out, it
> > > will be the default in 4.5"
> >
> > So anybody that wants named to run as root so that it can bind to
> > addresses that are configured after named has started gets to suffer
> > these emails ?
> >
> > Are you saying that *you* know better than the person running a given
> > machine ?  I think not.
> 
> I think that anyone running BIND as root deserves to know the risk they're
> putting themselves in.  Look at BIND 8's history and tell me that it's a
> completely safe application to run as root.  When protection against being
> rooted is this easy, people should be using it.

And how do you know that person is running bind8 ?  Are you going to 
interrogate $named_program now too ?

> The case of running a dns server on dynamic interfaces is irrelevant.
> Such a server would be useless anyway, since nobody could find it.  Maybe
> there's one or two people who have some really weird situation which
> requires such a setup, but I'm sure that's a really small amount of
> people.

I'd say this is fairly common:

	query-source address * port 53;

Running a ppp server and offering the local interface address as a 
nameserver may be common too - I don't know and neither do you.

But this is a dumb strawman.  You should not be trying to dictate 
policy over configurations you know nothing about.  Sending email to 
people saying that they should be running named as non-root is just 
ludicrous.

> Clearly it's not going to be easy to set the defaults to use bind:bind
> without breaking some configurations.  However, this is something that
> _should_ be done.

This (damage) has already been done in -current.  I am saying that doing 
this in -stable -- breaking peoples existing configurations -- is an 
exercise that will make the FreeBSD project look like idiots, and I 
won't subscribe to that idea.

Why are people so eager to shove these changes down the throats of 
the unsuspecting masses running -stable ?  Is everyone trying to 
scare away our user base ?

>                    This would be a much more productive conversation if
> you could put forward some ideas on how to make the transition as painless
> as possible.

If I subscribed to the idea, I would suggest a way forward.  The 
painless option is to back out what's been done so far and for 
people to think about and test what they're going to do before 
doing it.

> Mike "Silby" Silbersack

-- 
Brian <brian@freebsd-services.com>                <brian@Awfulhak.org>
      http://www.freebsd-services.com/        <brian@[uk.]FreeBSD.org>
Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour !      <brian@[uk.]OpenBSD.org>



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