Re: Best way of arranging admin of permissions?

From: Michael Brown (michaelat_private)
Date: Fri May 25 2001 - 11:16:03 PDT

  • Next message: James Antill: "Re: FormatGuard"

    Comments inline below:
    
    On Thu, 24 May 2001 hugoat_private wrote:
    
    >    What I'd like is to have a nested set of permissions:
    >
    > Set (A): Some subset of all users -- able to set transient events
    >
    > Set (B): Some subset of (A) -- able to set permanent events
    >
    >    I can see a couple of ways of achieving this:
    >
    > 1) Have two groups (say, tsperm and tstemp) which grant access to the
    > appropriate configuration directory (the dirs are root.ts(perm|temp)
    > drwxrwx--t). -- This allows the user to edit directly their
    > configuration files.
    This allows the users in Set A to set permanent events - all they have to
    do is have their transient event write a new event file to the spool
    directory.
    
    > 2) Have two groups granting access, and check users' membership of the
    > appropriate group before allowing them access to the spool dirs (which
    > are root.root drwx------). -- This requires a suid-root program.
    >
    >    I *think* that option 2 is the one to go for, but I'm not sure.
    My instincts say yes.
    
    >    So... my questions are:
    >
    >    Which of the above options is the best in terms of secure design?
    >    Are there any other sensible options I've missed?
    Possibly, whenever an event executes, search in
    /home/*/.scheduler-eventname for a script to run for the appropriate user?
    I'm not sure if I like this as much as option 2 though.
    For example, on my home system I search certain users' homedirs for
    ~/bin/autoexec scripts that I will run on bootup.
    
    >    What pitfalls should I try to avoid in implementing this design?
    See above
    
    M.
    
    -- 
    VBScript is designed to be a secure programming environment.  It
    lacks various commands that can be potentially damaging if used in
    a malicious manner.  This added security is critical in enterprise
    solutions.                                      -- support.microsoft.com
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri May 25 2001 - 12:10:39 PDT