Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!topaz.rutgers.edu!ron From: ron@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: Passwords in /etc/group Message-ID: <13453@topaz.rutgers.edu> Date: Wed, 22-Jul-87 12:54:50 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.13453 Posted: Wed Jul 22 12:54:50 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jul-87 05:29:00 EDT References: <5740010@hpfcdc.HP.COM> <207@macom1.UUCP> <3671@cisunx.UUCP> <2812@ncoast.UUCP> <462@unisoft.UUCP> Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 17 Actually, it copies the file first and after you are done editing it makes sure that there is an account called root with a uid of zero and the requisite number of colons on the line and has a home directory of /. It also performs the job of rebuilding the dbm database in 4.3 that enables fast pwent lookups. Another feature is that it does an explicit chmod to 644 so that people with either extremely generous or paranoid umasks won't make the file writable or unreadable to the public. It would be nice if it checked the number of colons on all the lines, verified that the numeric fields were numeric, and checked for silly null entries that other programs make that end up being security bugs (like ::0:0:::) on some systems. -Ron