Re: Ports and privileges

[tqbf () secnet com]

> The separation of "root" into multiple small privileges is exactly
> what is done on many of the trusted operating systems.  When using
> one of these systems as your webserver or firewall base, you avoid
> many of the problems experienced with less secure operating systems.

Of course, this only works with a kernel audit; many of the privileges
that are currently guarded with, say, suser() in 4.4BSD, are equivalent to
root, and not always in obvious ways. 

Not that dividing up root is a bad thing (quite the opposite!), just that
it's trickier than it seems to do it with maximal effectiveness.

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Thomas H. Ptacek                                        Secure Networks, Inc.
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http://www.enteract.com/~tqbf                           "mmm... sacrilicious"