Re: Window manager - implementation bug/feature ???

[timothy.miller () AFIWC01 AF MIL (Timothy J. Miller)]

Chris Wilson <cmw32 () CAM AC UK> writes:

> This is normal behaviour under Red Hat *ONLY* when you log in physically
> to the machine (i.e. from the console). Red Hat assumes that normal users
> who are sitting in front of the machine will want to play CDs, use audio,
> etc. without having to become root. This increases security, because
> people don't need the root password to play CDs anymore. It doesn't happen
> if you log in remotely by telnet.

        I would still call it broken behaviour.  For instance, Debian
uses group rw permissions to control access to floppy, audio, cdrom,
modem, etc. devices; properly adding local users to the correct groups
eliminates the need for privileged code.  Special-casing local logons
smacks of a bad hack.