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List:       kde
Subject:    Re: Quick Question
From:       Adolf Koenig <rzuw001 () rz ! uni-wuerzburg ! de>
Date:       1999-07-11 16:20:30
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Earl Carey wrote (in an explanation for Jason Pratt):
>
> ... If you do chmod u+s /usr/sbin/pppd
> and then do a ls -l on pppd you will find that it is.
> 
> What you are doing here is making an executable file that was previously only
> executable by root, executable by any user.

This explanation is not correct. To make a file executable for every user you
would only need 
  chmod o+x filename
chmod u+s filename results in the following:

Every user who executes that file/programm will get the same privileges
for the duration of the execution as the file-owner. In most cases this is
used for files belonging to root, so that a normal user can execute commands
which need privileged actions. An example is the passwd command.
You may not change /etc/passwd directly but you can with the privilege.

As with the suid-bit you get temporarily extraordinary privileges,
it's critical not to set this bit for many executables, because you can rarely be quite
sure, that an executable (still worse a shellscript) can not be misused.
 
 greetings
 
 A.Koenig
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