Re: Ports and privileges

[mcnabb () argus-systems com (Paul McNabb)]

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.

paul

>  From: Chris Pugrud <ChrisP () steldyn com>
>  
>  I know that _one_ of the primary reasons for all of the workarounds in
>  doing suid and chroot is because many of these programs need to run as
>  root (yes, chroot has many other uses).  Why do they need to run as
>  root?  The primary reasons seems to be so that they can open privileged
>  ports.
>  
>  How hard would it be to modify the stack (say Linux) so that I can run
>  an unprivileged program on a low port (say 80)?  Why would this be a bad
>  thing?  I understand the original concept, to keep users from running
>  programs on privileged ports, but firewalls don't have users.
>  
>  Is there another logical reason that this step is not taken.  Why can't
>  I have a compile time option of "Disable privileged port restrictions?"
>  Or is this coded so deeply in the system that it would just be a
>  nightmare?
>  
>  Is the privileged port concept just a fuzzy glossover for some hidden
>  primary issue that I don't want unprivileged uid's running on
>  "privileged" ports on a firewall?
>  
>  I know I am not the first person to follow this logic chain.  What I
>  want to know is why isn't it being done.

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Paul McNabb                     Argus Systems Group, Inc.
Vice President and CTO          1809 Woodfield Drive
mcnabb () argus-systems com        Savoy, IL 61874 USA
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