Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!WOLFGANG.MITRE.ORG!psw From: psw@WOLFGANG.MITRE.ORG (Phil Wherry) Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Subject: RE: General ID to generate specific ID Message-ID: <8707250522.AA20707@wolfgang.mitre.org> Date: Sat, 25-Jul-87 01:22:32 EDT Article-I.D.: wolfgang.8707250522.AA20707 Posted: Sat Jul 25 01:22:32 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 17:58:44 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 26 A followup to Mary Bainter's message about using CMKRNL to change UICs on a process to set up "subaccounts"...if this is to be done at all, it should be done from an image installed with privilege (and appropriate internal controls)...NOT via the authorized privilege mask in the UAF. If a user has CMKRNL, they can access anything without regard to protection if they put enough trouble into it. And at all but the most paranoid of sites, it's little trouble at all; the SET UIC [1,4] command will gleefully give you what amounts to SYSPRV, then it's off to Authorize to wreak havoc on the free world. I know this will probably be but one of a number of similar replies, and I apologize in advance for opening a can of worms like the one around a recent query about SYS$ANNOUNCE. But CMKRNL is an exceedingly dangerous privilege -- granting it to non-system people can and will seriously undermine the security of your system by making accidental and deliberate data access a near-trivial matter. My two cents' worth on the SYS$ANNOUNCE controversy: I'd like to think we're all among friends here. I don't mind reading the same message (or essentially the same one) 10 or 15 times because the other information on Info-VAX is often so valuable. And every once in a while, I pick up a trick from one of the very similar messages out there--this makes them worthwhile. Good sense and good taste are probably all that's required here. Phil Wherry