[plug] Question on Linux system security

[Christian]

On Tue, Aug 14, 2001 at 01:45:24PM +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
 
> In the (GNOME) panel, is the tv screen, with the moon and the stars, for
> logging out of GNOME (shutting down X-Windows). It has 3 options; Logout, Halt
> and Reboot. 
> For the first time, I thought that I would try the Reboot option.
> It actually shut down X-Windows, and, rebooted the system.
> I was logged in as a user, not as root.
> Should a Linux system reboot be able to be done by a user, rather than by root?
> (version: Red Hat 6.2)

Yes, assuming two things:

a) This only works for users who are working on the system from the
console.  These users presumably have local access to the machine and
could pull the plug if they wanted anyway.

b) The system is configured to allow console users to reboot the
machine.  I expect this is the default and it probably makes sense.

For memory too, Red Hat has a feature that allows ordinary users to
reboot the system (whether using GNOME or not) if they are logged into
the console.  I assume this feature too can be disabled although I can't
confirm this because I don't really use Red Hat at all.

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