Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 09:18:02 -0600 From: Samuel Greear <dragonk@mato.com> To: Brandon Poyner <brandon@thebiz.net>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Re: really nice FreeBSD security feature.... Message-ID: <01090909180201.00551@beware.dragonknight.net>
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On Sunday 09 September 2001 09:04 am, Brandon Poyner wrote: > > I can't find any trace of it on gnu.org's web site, but searching for > "stallman su wheel" on google turns up plenty of hits. > > > Why GNU su does not support the wheel group (by Richard Stallman) > > > > Sometimes a few of the users try to hold total power over all the > > rest. For example, in 1984, a few users at the MIT AI lab decided to > > seize power by changing the operator password on the Twenex system > > and keeping it secret from everyone else. (I was able to thwart this > > coup and give power back to the users by patching the kernel, but I > > wouldn't know how to do that in Unix.) > > > > However, occasionally the rulers do tell someone. Under the usual su > > mechanism, once someone learns the root password who sympathizes > > with the ordinary users, he can tell the rest. The wheel group feature > > would make this impossible, and thus cement the power of the rulers. > > > > I'm on the side of the masses, not that of the rulers. If you are > > used to supporting the bosses and sysadmins in whatever they do, you > > might find this idea strange at first. > > -- > Brandon Lee Poyner, Unix Systems Engineer brandon@thebiz.net > BiznessOnline.com, Inc. http://www.BiznessOnline.com/ > And all this time I thought RMS was a quasi-communist because of the GPL.... But no, I was wrong! Power to the people! -- Samuel J. Greear <dragonk@evilcode.net> Developer - GetMegabits, Inc. http://www.itmom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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