Article View: comp.mail.sendmail
Article #2919Re: Non-root sendmail?
From: Badri Lokanathan
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1988 23:32
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1988 23:32
51 lines
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2847 bytes
In article <735@tank.uchicago.edu>, matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Matt Crawford) writes:
> Badri Lokanathan:
> ) It may not be possible for the following reason: there is no way currently
> ) for any other id to concatenate a new message to /usr/spool/mail/fubar,
>
> Sendmail doesn't *do* that, /bin/mail does.
True. I stand corrected. However I delved into the Installation and
Operation Guide (by Eric Allman) and found this interesting tidbit:
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.
.
4.7.1. To suid or not to suid?
Sendmail can safely be made setuid to root. At the point where
it is about to exec(2) a mailer, it checks to see if the userid
is zero; if so, it resets the userid and groupid to a default
(set by the u and g options.) This can be overridden by
setting the S flag to the mailer for mailers that are trusted
and must be called as root. However this will cause mail
processing to be accounted (using sa(8)) to root rather than to
the user sending mail.
4.7.2. Temporary file modes
The mode of all temporary files that sendmail creates
is determined by the "F" option. Reasonable values for this option
are 0600 and 0644. If the more permissive mode is selected, it
will not be necessary to run sendmail as root at all (even
when running the queue).
.
.
5.3.6. Building mailer descriptions
.
.
If the mailer must be called as root, the "S" flag should be
given; this will not reset the userid before calling the
mailer (sendmail must be running setuid to root for this to
work.)
.
.
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These were the only references to setuid that I found in the
documentation (other than rebuilding the aliases database and another
reference to the S flag in appendix C with the ironic statement that a
safe environment ran sendmail as root!) No reference to socket 25
being a restricted port.
--
"We will fight for the right to be free {) badri@ee.rochester.edu
We will build our own society //\\ {ames,cmcl2,columbia,cornell,
And we will sing, we will sing ///\\\ garp,harvard,ll-xn,rutgers}!
We will sing our own song." -UB40 _||_ rochester!ur-valhalla!badri
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<1577@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!uflorida!mailrus!bbn!rochester!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ur-valhalla!badriReferences:
<164@heart-of-gold> <1572@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu> <735@tank.uchicago.edu>Show Full Headers
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!uflorida!mailrus!bbn!rochester!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ur-valhalla!badri From: badri@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu (Badri Lokanathan) Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail Subject: Re: Non-root sendmail? Summary: I stand corrected Message-ID: <1577@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu> Date: 11 Nov 88 23:32:05 GMT References: <164@heart-of-gold> <1572@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu> <735@tank.uchicago.edu> Organization: UR Dept. of Electrical Engg, Rochester NY 14627 Lines: 51