chown (was: at files and permissions)

RAMontante bobmon at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
Thu Jul 6 23:22:51 AEST 1989


->>... BSD allows only root to change file ownership.
-
->I certainly hope that V.4 doesn't have this *bogus* restriction.
-
chris at mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) <18414 at mimsy.UUCP> :
-The restriction is not bogus, because the system supports disk quotas.
-	[ . . . ]
-All you need do is find someone with a high quota or no quota (such
-as a professor) who does not often check his own usage (such as a
-professor) and probably does not care that the disk is 99% full (such


There are also many potential problems from hostile users (generally
undergraduates) --- consuming someone else's quota can break their
running program, make them miss an assignment deadline, etc.  Putting
obscene or incriminating material in someone else's file system and then
"turning them in" can do some real *major* damage.

Hope I haven't inspired anyone with this...but hey, I prefer BSD anyway.



More information about the Comp.unix.questions mailing list