chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek) (10/30/86)
In article <32@popeye.UUCP> sherm@popeye.UUCP (62545456-Paul A. Sherman;LZ 3E-303;6316) writes: >Although /etc does not *need* to be 775 group sys, it makes ps(1) run >much faster in most cases (see explanation below). I don't know if >other standard programs make use of this situation, but I don't think >that it creates a security problem. Someone else claims it does. In any case, that >... ps runs MUCH faster when it can use an existing ps_data does not mean that you need keep /etc mode 775: >If /etc is mode 755, owned by root, ps can only successfully create >a new ps_data file when it is run by root. ... any user changing a >password (with passwd) or login shell (with chsh) changes /etc/passwd >and makes the older /etc/ps_data unusable. [This seems rather silly: password and shell changes do not affect the data ps needs. I suppose it is an accident of the implementation.] >Adding or removing nodes from /dev (which admittedly happens much >less frequently and requires superuser permissions) also makes >ps_data unusable since the modification time of /dev changes. [Adding or removing users probably makes ps_data unusable, too.] A simple solution might be to run `ps >/dev/null' every hour or so from cron. -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690) UUCP: seismo!umcp-cs!chris CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris@mimsy.umd.edu