suid

[Mario Ohnewald <mario.ohnewald@gmx.de>]

Hello!
Everybody knows that files with a suid bit set can be dangerous.
Well, i was asking myself today why exactly linux uses the suid bit files?!
Could someone please explain that to me?

Example:
~$ ls -lah /var/spool/cron/crontabs/user
-rw-------    1 root     user           408 Apr 16 

Ok, the suid is set for the crontab binary because you have to edit the root 
owned file.
But why is it owned by root in the first place?


Cheers, Mario