Another rkhunter question

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 18 May 2009, Tim wrote:
>On Mon, 2009-05-18 at 16:34 -0400, Bill Davidsen wrote:
>> And might you ever accidentally have used it as root? Just looking at
>> the name, I know you're old enough to know better. ;-)
>
>Harrumph!  ;-)  We *know* he does things as root, *we* know that's a bad
>idea in general, *we* also know that the system's designed against that
>sort of thing, and that using a system contrary to the design tends to
>cause problems, LOTS of unforeseen problems.
>
>If you want to use a system aberrantly, you need to put in a lot of work
>to circumvent the restrictions, all over the place, and you'll forever
>be picking up the pieces.  None of which would be accepted as being
>bugs, because it's not meant to be used that way.
>
>Gene do you leave the interlocks shorted on the transmitter doors when
>it's not *absolutely* necessary to do that for service work?

I learned that particular lesson 4 decades ago when I discovered that someone 
else before me had bypassed it when I opened the door to adjust the coupling 
on an antique Standard Electronics tv transmitter.  That takes about an 8" 
crescent wrench, which got shortened about 1/2" on the handle end by the 
handle swinging around and coming in contact with the plate fins of one of the 
4 5924's it use as finals.  There was about 5500 volts in the 32 microfarads 
of filter capacitors, and it all went to ground thru the 3.125" coax line 
feeding a 330 foot liberty tower with a TF-3-AL antenna on it.  I never felt a 
thing, but I'll bet that vhf 'click' was heard over a good percentage of the 
planet.

Its also a lesson I haven't forgotten in the ensuing years.  Interlocks around 
me WORK.  Period.  And I still don't trust them.

>That's
>what you're doing when you go around doing everything as root.  You're
>going to get RF burns, and find your screwdrivers embedded in the wall
>behind you.

The last rf burn I got was probably in 1959.  The last screwdriver I damaged 
electrically was in 1985.  I've worn many out though.  That doesn't mean I 
stay at arms length from this stuff, I once taped up the handle of a 24" 
crescent wrench, and put another split bolt, about a pound of solid bronze, 
alongside one that was in the process of burning itself up on a pair of 750MCM 
cables, and only shut the transmitter off for about 4 minutes so I didn't have 
contact arcing as I placed it.  The circuit wasn't capable of being rendered 
safe without cutting the 750MCM feedlines from the pole mounted substation.  
When I inherited that transmitter site, it had no main entrance breaker, and 
still doesn't.  After June 12th, who cares, we are outta there.

One does what he needs to do to get the job done.  However I've never 
subscribed to the theory that one shouldn't drive any faster than ones 
guardian angel can fly.  I no darned well I've outrun that angel more than 
once. :)

>Beyond some configuration work, the only time I've ever had to run as
>root is to undo the damage caused by something else that was erroneously
>done as root.

And I'd remind you that I am still here.  I now occasionally consider the end, 
since I'm 74, diabetic & allergic to the cholesterol drugs.  So I will 
eventually go away, but then who are you gonna pick on?  :)

>--
>[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
>2.6.27.21-78.2.41.fc9.i686
uname -r?  Try 2.6.30-rc6.
>
>Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
>read messages from the public lists.


-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
		-- Elbert Hubbard