Re: Checkpassword 0.90 + Redhat 9.0

Paul Jarc wrote:

>Sean Kennedy <[email protected]> wrote:
>  
>
>>ls -lL /bin/checkpassword
>>-r-s--s--t    1 root     root         8.5k Dec 13  2001 /bin/checkpassword
>>    
>>
>
>The setuid bit explains why it works.  The setgid and sticky bits
>serve no purpose, though.  I'd suggest "chmod g-s,-t".  As for the
>setuid bit, it's a tradeoff.  There's a risk in having a root process
>talking to the network, but there also a risk in having another setuid
>program on the system.
>
Right, after I realized I was wrong about the suid bit, I went back and 
did some reading.  Thanks for the tip here, i used it as an example of 
the hows and whys, got it figure out I think.

>  
>
>>I need qmaild to be able to check system passwords using
>>checkpassword,
>>    
>>
>
>Are you sure you can't just run the caller as root?  What is the
>caller?
>
>
>paul
>
qmail-smtpd is what needs it, and I thought about running it as root as 
a quick and dirty way of making it work, but that would comprimise the 
security of qmail, yes?  Is having one extra suid program floating 
around such a bad thing?

Sean