Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site rna.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!cmcl2!rna!dan From: dan@rna.UUCP (Dan Ts'o) Newsgroups: net.bugs.usg Subject: RE: Why does the S5 init run "/bin/su" in single-user mode Message-ID: <264@rna.UUCP> Date: Fri, 22-Jun-84 13:40:08 EDT Article-I.D.: rna.264 Posted: Fri Jun 22 13:40:08 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 24-Jun-84 00:01:49 EDT Organization: Rockefeller Neurobiology, NYC Lines: 18 Hi, One reason I might do such a thing is to prevent passers-by from booting the system and getting a root shell. On my system, I replaced init's call to /bin/sh to /bin/login to achieve the same thing. I felt that the rare chance that /bin/login, /etc/passwd were corrupted but NOT /bin/sh was small compared to the value of not being able to get an easy root shell. Of course, if you are convinced that your computer room is absolutely safe from unauthorized access and that rebooting would be detected immediately, then this feature is less useful. Such is not the case in our environment, where persons knowledgible but NOT authorized to be root have access to the machine room. Making /bin/login the single-user command also aids in implementing an "operator" class of uids - people authorized to use certain commands such as fsck and dump but not become root. Cheers, Dan Ts'o ...cmcl2!rna!dan