[plug] Question on Linux system security

[Bill Kenworthy]

Hi Brett,
terminology: computers reboot/halt, applications restart.  Some X logins
(kdm on Mandrake is one I think) have an extra - restart X server

On a number of RH 6.2 systems I have installed, the standard
out-of-the-box was that reboot within a user logged in X session asked
for password, at the gdm login, allowed shutdown etc.  In linuxconf
somewhere are some settings that turn off user access (or set them to
ask for passwords) for a number of system commands like this.

For my money, a user on a desktop should be given full access, on a
server root only.  My reasons are that I know that many who decide to
reboot a machine and dont have access to do it properly will just cycle
the power anyway - and thats speaking from experiance (bloody NT
wackers)!  Ask for password is probably the safest, but that means
knowing the root password or playing with other settings - complicated.

In short, allowing shutdown by a user on a desktop is actually safer coz
its gonna happen anyway.

BillK

On 14 Aug 2001 13:45:24 +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
> 
> After shutting the system down a couple of hours ago, due to a power failure
> (Armadale - unstable electricity supply), and after the UPS appeared to have
> recovered sufficiently to reboot the computer, I booted the computer, logged
> in, ran X-Windows, then I had a problem in trying to load kmail - nothing
> happened, so I decided that I should shutdown X-Windows and reboot.
> 
> 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)
> 
> Bret Busby
> ............
> 
>