🚀 go-pugleaf

evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans) writes:

>This sounds like the same sort of philophicy used in VAX/VMS if it can't find
>SYS$UAF (the equivalent of /etc/password)
>It gives you all privs.
>I think the assumption (on the part of the OS) is that the file system
>is trashed and you need the privs to fix it.
>(though I have a feeling that VMS will only allow a console login in
>that situation)

That's correct.  If the authorization file disappears then you can go to
the console and get full access, but you can't login from any other 
terminal.  Requiring physical access to the console in this situation is
not a security hole IMHO, it is similar to bringing the system up in
single-user mode with Unix, although some Unix systems require a password
for this.  With VMS you can also boot the system with an alternate boot 
file, and then specify the console device as that file, which gives similar
results to bring up a Unix system in single user mode.


   --dag
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Darren Alex Griffiths               | dag@nasty.ossi.com
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