Problems with ifconfig in Fedora 8
Mike Burger
mburger at bubbanfriends.org
Tue Apr 22 16:30:57 UTC 2008
> On Tue, 2008-04-22 at 07:02 -0400, Mike Burger wrote:
>> > On 22/04/2008, Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>> >
>> >> There's a reason that ordinary users don't include /sbin: There can
>> be
>> >> commands in /bin and /sbin with the same command name, but to do
>> >> slightly different roles. The root user will use the first one if
>> >> finds, the one in /sbin, which may allow them to do more than what
>> an
>> >> ordinary user can do with the /bin command.
>> >
>> > We really ought to fix that :o) the issue is one of ordering more than
>> > actual inclusion in the path, i.e. the order should for /bin,/sbin
>> > (for each of /usr/local, /usr, /) for users and /sbin,/bin (likewise)
>> > for root.
>>
>> IMO, the proper fix should be to have one version of the command, in one
>> location. If there are functions that require root privileges to run,
>> and
>> the user running the command is not root, then have the command pop up a
>> message indicating that the specified option(s) require root privileges.
>>
>> This is standard in a lot of apps and commands...why shouldn't it be so
>> for base OS commands?
>
> IIRC, the stuff in /sbin doesn't assume you have a GUI, so "popping up"
> is not really an option.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only person who takes things way too literally
for their own good. :-)
Having duly noted the above, note that a GUI is not a necessity for the
ability to say "You're not root, you can't do that".
Try running "nmap -sS <ip address>" as a non-root user.
It comes back with a message that says "You reuested a scan type which
requires r00t privileges, and you do not have them".
Try mounting a filesystem as yourself...you get a message that says:
mount: only root can mount /dev/hdaX on /mount/point
All within the confines of your text/telnet/ssh session.
It comes
--
Mike Burger
http://www.bubbanfriends.org
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