>>>>> "Hamish" == Hamish Moffatt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Hamish> On Tue, Dec 26, 2000 at 11:13:13AM +1100, Brian May wrote: >> However, the idea of one UID per daemon is (IMHO) a really >> horrible solution, too, as you end up having more UIDs for >> daemons then users. Hamish> Why is that a problem? There are 65536 available UIDs. Well yes and no. On most desktop systems there never will be a problem. Some potential problems though: - easy to hide back-door entry point in /etc/passwd if lots of entries exist (eg. missing password field). Whether this is by mistake or done on purpose by an attacker is not important, but the fact it is harder to detect may be important. - As the number of entries grows, the chance that one/more entries will conflict with some NIS, openldap or remote NFS system increases. Especially since adduser, etc, do not support NIS or openldap. I am not sure of the details here - can adduser assign a local user a UID that conflicts with that from some other source? - harder to administrate /etc/passwd as more users exist. -- Brian May <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>