Modem security (was Re: Wow! Kppp-user-works(was Configuration of kppp)

[Alan Mead <adm ipat com>]

At 08:31 PM 10/4/99 PDT, fengping li wrote:
>Hi, Stephen, James and other friends,
>
>First Thanks to Zoki<zoki magic fr>, who posted the very usful informaiton. 
>Having taken his(her) advice, I configured my Kppp
>and now I can dial-up as a "user" instead of "root". The following
>is the key commands you should follow:
>
>as root,
>chmod 666 /dev/ttyS0  (Note that your port might be ttyS2 or
>                       something else, test it)
>chown root:root /usr/sbin/pppd
>chmod +s /usr/sbin/pppd
>chmod 666 /etc/resolv.conf

I stumbled on Kppp last night and figured the above out (I didn't do
anything to resolv.conf, what does that do?). I like it.  But I was
wondering what the security implications are.  I suppose they are:

- Anyone could mess up the modem, and
- Any bugs in pppd could compromise the machine

Just curious.

-Alan
---
Alan D. Mead  /  Research Scientist  /  adm ipat com
Institute for Personality and Ability Testing
1801 Woodfield Dr  /  Savoy IL 61874 USA
217-352-4739 (v)  /  217-352-9674 (f)