SVR3 passwd changes mode of passwd file

[Marc Evans]

In article <1235 at cbnews.ATT.COM> lvc at cbnews.ATT.COM (Lawrence V. Cipriani) writes:
>No, unless you don't give a darn about security.  What exactly is your
>complaint about mode 0444 on /etc/passwd? Anything one should be allowed
>to do to /etc/passwd should be done by root or the owner of /etc.  A
>carefully coded suid to root should do the job.  Please elaborate what your
>need is.
>
>Larry Cipriani, AT&T Network Systems, Columbus OH, cbnews!lvc lvc at cbnews.ATT.COM

My personal opinion is that /etc/passwd should be mode 0644, owned by root,
and the /etc directory should be mode 0755 owned by root as well. The reason
for this is to facilitate shell scripts that have become popular such as 
/etc/vipw, which can only be executed by the user root. This allows generic
users to read the file as needed, while the administrator (root) is allowed
to modify things without having to forcably overwrite the file (ie - in vi,
:w! instead of :w).

Unfortunately, with the advent of networks and things like YP, this script
only helps with half of the problem, but this is a whole different discussion...
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Marc Evans | decvax<--\    /-->marc<--\               | That's not a bug...It's
Synergytics| harvard<--\  /            \  /--->norton | a design feature... 8-)
Pelham, NH | necntc<---->ima<---->symetrx<---->dupont | =======================
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