utmp and friends

[Miroslav Lichvar]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2007 at 08:25:24AM -0400, Bill Nottingham wrote:
> Miroslav Lichvar (mlichvar at redhat.com) said: 
> > > The entire idea of utempter is so that the terminal *doesn't* need to be
> > > setgid - if it's setgid, what's the point of a helper?
> > 
> > Well, the terminal doesn't need to be setgid utmp, but only utempter.
> > Setgid utempter allows only adding/removing entries in utmp while
> > setgid utmp allows unrestricted access.
> 
> Only if it's coded wrong (doesn't drop privs, etc.). By adding a
> setgid to the binary, you're making the point of separating it
> merely a code-sharing issue, as opposed to any huge security gains.
> 
> I'd remove the block on the directory - basically, you're intentionally
> breaking user's environments for illusory security.

Ok, I've filed a bug report to drop the requirement in libutempter (#246063).

-- 
Miroslav Lichvar