Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!alberta!ncc!lyndon From: lyndon@ncc.Nexus.CA (Lyndon Nerenberg) Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail Subject: Re: problems with new users' mail file creation Message-ID: <10331@ncc.Nexus.CA> Date: 15 Jul 88 05:09:56 GMT References: <876@garth.UUCP> <1410006@hpfclp.SDE.HP.COM> Reply-To: lyndon@ncc.nexus.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg) Organization: Nexus Computing Inc. Lines: 19 In article <1410006@hpfclp.SDE.HP.COM> diamant@hpfclp.SDE.HP.COM (John Diamant) writes: >Would you care to explain that item about the sticky bit? I always that the >sticky bit was merely an efficiency hack. Are you saying that it actually >changes the security of the running program? How? In some BSD implementations, setting the sticky bit on a directory says that (if you have the appropriate write permission) you can create a file in that directory, however you have to be the owner of the file in order to remove it. We use this feature in a number of public "spool" directories where we don't want to run an suid program soley for the purpose of protecting files from inadvertant or malicious deletion. [ Where did this "feature" originate, anyway ?? ] -- {alberta,pyramid,uunet}!ncc!lyndon lyndon@Nexus.CA Ain't singin' for Miller...