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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: security vs. usability
From:       Alex Zepeda <jazepeda () pacbell ! net>
Date:       2001-02-08 8:36:09
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On Tue, Feb 06, 2001 at 03:14:52PM -0700, Tim Lee wrote:

> I know nothing of diald.  We use Kppp and intend to continue to use
> it, unless it requires a root password everytime someone needs to
> dial in or some rediculous setup required to get it to work because
> someone determined it had to be that way for security.

Which is fine.  Kppp doesn't strike me as something that needs to be suid
at all.  It communicates with pppd which itself is likely suid, right?

Perhaps finer grained control needs to be allowed, something along the 
lines of sudo, or perhaps this:

if (currentuser.isAllowed("/full/path/to/suidapp", uid_to_run_as))
  checktomakesureappdoesnothavesuidorsgidbitset if so, abort
else
  if (!passwordiscached("/full/path/to/suidapp", cur_uid, uid_to_run_as)
    promptforpassword
endif    
gainprivs
fork/exec program
exit

And the root user could manipulate this thru a kcmprivilegedapps or
somesuch.  This way if the admin deems a program safe, it can be run by
any allowed users with whatever privileges.

- alex

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