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Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2019 10:57:15 -0500 (CDT)
From: Bob Friesenhahn <bfriesen@...ple.dallas.tx.us>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
cc: Malte Kraus <malte.kraus@...e.com>
Subject: Re: Privileged File Access from Desktop
Applications
On Thu, 11 Jul 2019, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>
> It seems like a bad idea.
>
> If one wants to have mechanisms by which the operating system can
> allow unprivileged programs to temporarily assume privileges (which
> is a frequent idea in security), then they should be carefully
> designed and part of the OS, rather than creating an ad hoc facility
> via a subsystem that isn't intended for it. There are good ways to do
> that, like capabilities.
I agree. It is rather common that more than one file needs to be
modified at one time. If a more complex mechanism like a sqlite3
database needs to be updated, then the implementation of sqlite3 will
expect to be able to access files in a normal way and it will expect
to be use all the abilities it normally uses. It is rather common
that atomic operations are required, locking is required, the ability
to link/rename files is required, and that synchronization of file
content and directories is required.
In addition to the security concerns, it is difficult to see how a
virtual filesystem intended for use by simplistic GUI file managers
will satisfy common administrative requirements.
Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@...ple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer, http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/
Public Key, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/public-key.txt
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