root access

[q-funk@megacom.net (Martin-Eric Racine)]

About security holes in MiNT, I dunno if this one was ever fixed,
but it was mentioned in Modemdev0 docs:

En theorie, il n'est pas necessaire de modifier MiNT pour utiliser ce
driver.  En pratique, si vous voulez utiliser votre Atari en mode
multi-utilisateurs, il est souhaitable de le securiser un peu.  En
particulier, seul root devrait avoir le droit d'ecrire sur les
partitions TOS (il faut patcher la fonction tos_getxattr dans tosfs.c),
et la machine devrait rebooter automatiquement si jamais on quitte MiNT
ou en cas d'erreur fatale.  C'est plus une protection contre les bourdes
que contre le sabotage; ne comptez pas trop sur MiNT pour la securite!

Which translates into:

In theory, you shouldn't need to modify MiNT to use this driver.  In 
practice, if you intend on using your Atari as a multi-user system, it 
is desirable to make it more secure.  Specifically, only root should be 
allowed access to TOS partitions (one would need to patch tos_getxattr 
in tosfs.c), and the system should automatically reboot when exiting
MiNT or in case of a fatal error.  It's more of a protection against
crashes than against abuse; don't count on MiNT for being secure!


Any comments?  Should this be done?  Perhaps it's fixed already?

Thanks.


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