[plug] pppd

[Peter Wright]

On Wed, Nov 03, 1999 at 10:49:29AM +0800, Chris Johnstone wrote:
> Hi, I am new to linux and have just installed Red Hat 6.0 on my machine.
> I am having a problem connecting to the net on my user account. When I
> go to start kppp it says that the pppd binary is not properly installed
> with the SUID bit set. 
> 
> I was wondering is there another dialer that I can use, OR is there a
> relatively easy way to fix this problem. BTW this problem does not occur
> when I log on as root.

There is a relatively easy way to fix it, yes. As root, do:

chmod u+s /usr/sbin/pppd

This adds the SUID bit to the pppd executable - this means that it will run
with root (assuming root _owns_ the executable) privileges no matter who
runs it.  There are certain programs on a Linux system (usually those that
need to access hardware directly) that need to run with root privileges,
but from a security viewpoint you should be careful about which ones you
grant such privileges to.  Most methods for compromising systems involve
taking advantage of buggy or just badly written SUID programs.

> Chris Johnstone

Pete.
-- 
http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~pete/

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