runas-patent vs sudo

[shrek-m at gmx.de]

hi,


can we expect that sudo will not be included in fc3 ?

"due to potential patent problems" (the default redhat/fedora sentence)


http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&p=1&p=1&S1=6,775,781&OS=6,775,781&RS=6,775,781

paten-no: 6,775,781    august 10, 2004
assignee: microsoft corporation
filed: july 20, 2000

--snip--
Administrative security systems and methods

*Abstract*

A computer such as a network appliance executes an administrative 
security process configured to run under an administrative privilege 
level. Having an administrative privilege level, the administrative 
security process can initiate administrative functions in an operating 
system function library. A user process executing under a 
non-administrative privilege level can initiate a particular 
administrative function that the process would not otherwise be able to 
initiate by requesting that the administrative security process initiate 
the function. In response to a request to initiate a particular function 
from a process with a non-administrative privilege level, the 
administrative security process determines whether the requesting 
process is authorized to initiate the particular administrative function 
based on information accessed in a data store. If the requesting process 
is authorized, the administrative security process initiates the 
particular administrative function. In this manner, the administrative 
security process facilitates access to specific administrative functions 
for a user process having a privilege level that does not permit the 
user process to access the administrative functions.

--/snip--


vs.


http://www.sudo.ws/sudo/history.html

--snip--

Sudo was first conceived and implemented by Bob Coggeshall and Cliff
Spencer around 1980 at the Department of Computer Science at
SUNY/Buffalo.  It ran on a VAX-11/750 running 4.1BSD.  An updated
version, credited to Phil Betchel, Cliff Spencer, Gretchen Phillips,
John LoVerso and Don Gworek, was posted to the net.sources newsgroup
in December of 1985.
--/snip--


-- 
shrek-m