ACLs vs Capabilities
>>>>> "Zsombor" == Zsombor Gergely <gergely@econ.core.hu> writes:
Zsombor> On Fri, Mar 17, 2000 at 05:21:54PM -0800, R Joseph Wright
Zsombor> wrote:
>> Can someone explain a bit how ACLs work?
Zsombor> You may want to look at
Zsombor> http://www.eros-os.org/faq/basics.html#whatis-eros This
Zsombor> sketches how they do and do not work...
Interesting document. It now seems that ACLs are obsolete, if favour
of capabilities...
Sounds very "hurd"-like to me (ie it moves functionality normally
reserved for root to individual users), and might be worth
investigating...
Put simply ACLs associate
(userid,file) --> access
put capabilities associate
(processid,file) -> access
If my understanding is correct, this would fix some serious problems
with conventional Unix systems:
- setuid programs.
- requirement for new userid with every daemon.
However, on my first reading of the document, I still have questions
which are unanswered. I will read it again later, to see if I understand
better then. eg how do processes initially obtain capabilities?
--
Brian May <bam@debian.org>
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