NetInfoMgr -- could this be right?

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3 total messages Started by Dick Silbar Sat, 03 Oct 1992 15:51

#1728

Author: Dick Silbar
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1992 15:51

13 lines
1065 bytes

If I remember what actually happened yesterday (just after I hosed the
printcap for my local_printer), I saw the following (unexpected)
behavior in the NetInfoManager App.  It appears that one can delete
entries from the 'printers' domain (and perhaps other domains?) 
WITHOUT having to give the root password.

To modify values, etc., does require root permission (it will ask
for root password if you launch NetInfoMgr as some ordinary user).

Can this opportunity to delete printers possibly be correct?  Or, have 
I just a bad memory of what actually happened?

   Dick Silbar

Re: NetInfoMgr -- could this be right?

#1737

Author: Eric P. Scott
Date: Sun, 04 Oct 1992 06:46

32 lines
1982 bytes

In article <3OCT199209510709@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov>
	silbar@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov (Dick Silbar) writes:
>If I remember what actually happened yesterday (just after I hosed the
>printcap for my local_printer), I saw the following (unexpected)
>behavior in the NetInfoManager App.  It appears that one can delete
>entries from the 'printers' domain (and perhaps other domains?) 
>WITHOUT having to give the root password.
>
>To modify values, etc., does require root permission (it will ask
>for root password if you launch NetInfoMgr as some ordinary user).
>
>Can this opportunity to delete printers possibly be correct?  Or, have 
>I just a bad memory of what actually happened?

It's, um, a "feature"--just like it's a feature that you can plug
in the machine for the first time, get automatically logged into
a "me" Workspace with enough access permissions to wreak all
sorts of havoc.  Just like those "personal" computers we all know
and hate.

Of course, in the Real World of multiple users and globe-spanning
networks, that kind of "openness" might not be such a good thing.
(At least NeXT doesn't ship with "+ +" in /etc/hosts.equiv!)

Read the section titled "Securing Printer and Fax Addition" in
/NextLibrary/Documentation/NextAdmin/14_Security/01_Implementing.rtfd

					-=EPS=-
-- 
If you've just purchased 2,500 computers to run NeXTSTEP, you've
helped create jobs!  (If it takes only 10 minutes to secure each
machine, that's over 2 1/2 months for someone working full time!)

Re: NetInfoMgr -- could this be right?

#1778

Author: Alan M. Marcum
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1992 16:44

17 lines
956 bytes

Dick Silbar writes
> ...It appears that one can delete
> entries from the 'printers' domain (and perhaps other domains?) 
> WITHOUT having to give the root password.

This is correct.  Note the value of the _writers property in the
domain's /printers directory.  A star here means anyone may
write this directory.

See Chapter 14, "Security," in the 3.0 SysAdmin book (currently
available only on-line, in /NextLibrary/Documentation/NextAdmin;
Addison-Wesley is very close to publishing the book, at long
last).
--
Alan M. Marcum
NeXT Tech Support
amm@NeXT.COM

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