In Praise of Dos (RE: Mutt & tmp files)
To be blunt, I don't think one can entirely protect ones self from root,
nor do I believe it's an "All Good" idea.
Root Is God. This is a multi-user, full-time, "networked" device. Root
bears the responsibility of everything that happens to that machine.
They are answerable to everyone, not just one user.
For all its faults, Dos taught us what it was like to be in complete
control of ones own machine. No other users, no daemons, no "services".
Programs ran in a vacuum. I really like such control for single-user
machines from a security standpoint, even though I prefer the
functionality of Linux.
However, I also like the fact that when my wife's Win98 device crapped
out and was sent to the shop for repair, it was no effort to simply
"adduser x" . The beauty of a multi-user machine. She can get the
functions she needs until her machine comes back, but she now has to
trust me that I won't "less /var/spool/mail/x" as root.
If you cannot trust root, don't use that machine for anything you want
to be secure.
Curt-
ps: From a personal perspective, I think Linux is about where Windows
3.0 was. This is not a troll, just a usability thing.
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel D Jones [mailto:ddjones@riddlemaster.org]
... We're talking about trying to protect
yourself from legitimate root on a system where you're merely a user.
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