Nasty Security Hole?

[Michael H. Warfield Mike]

In article <8927 at smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn at brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>In article <2470 at aplcomm.jhuapl.edu> trn%warper.jhuapl.edu at aplvax.jhuapl.edu (Tony Nardo) writes:
>>A pity the implementers of UNIX didn't borrow one the idea of having a
>>separate "delete" bit.  It's one of a number of DEC features I miss.

>What in the world would it MEAN?  It is the DIRECTORY that is modified
>by an unlink, not the inode.  Would a "delete" bit then mean that no
>links to the inode could be removed?  Think about the consequences for
>a bit.  It would be horrible!

     Nope.  Sound great as long as it was in addition to directory permissions
and not instead of directory permissions.  Doesn't sound too good when you
say you will allow or disallow delete permission on all the files in a directory
regardless of the nature of the individual files.  Maybe some of the definition
needs refining but it sure could fix more problems than it casues!

Michael H. Warfield  (The Mad Wizard)	| gatech.edu!galbp!wittsend!mhw
  (404)  270-2123 / 270-2098		| mhw at wittsend.LBP.HARRIS.COM
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