Re: shell program menu
> > Are you aware of the fact that any vi clone can give you a shell? Just
> > type
> >
> > :!sh
> >
> > in command mode and you'll get the prompt of whatever is called 'sh' on
> > the system.
> >
> > This is not only a problem with vi, but with many other programs as well.
Agreed that this is a problem but I have been giving customers a menu (I
wrote a sh script a few years ago that I'm still using... ugly but it
works and is easy to maintain) instead of a shell (I *only* give a shell
to people I meet face to face which I can do because we're a small ISP).
It works great, and since most of the users don't want to have to 'learn
UNIX' it's actually a win-win solution :-) If I was doing it again I
would check out pdmenu or perlmenu.
Also since it's designed to be easier to use then a shell you wouldn't
typically give a user vi, you would give them pico. Pine can be trivially
configured so that no one can get a shell escape or access a 'UNIX Pipe'.
Elm has one by default but you can turn off shell escapes if you
recompile, same with tin.
We wrote a simple C program which allows users to delete, rename (etc etc)
files in their home directory, and also gives them access to Z-modem (this
menu was written before PPP :-).
It takes a little though but it *really* isn't that hard to make a
moderately secure menu (I did it as a newbie with only a few screw ups
which were quickly caught and fixed).
Adam.
------------------------ Internet Alaska -------------------------
4050 Lake Otis Adam Shand (v) +1 907 562 4638
Anchorage, Alaska Systems Administrator (f) +1 907 562 1677
----------------- http://larry.earthlight.co.nz ------------------
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