> > Are you aware of the fact that any vi clone can give you a shell? Just > > type > > > > :!sh > > > > in command mode and you'll get the prompt of whatever is called 'sh' on > > the system. > > > > This is not only a problem with vi, but with many other programs as well.
Agreed that this is a problem but I have been giving customers a menu (I wrote a sh script a few years ago that I'm still using... ugly but it works and is easy to maintain) instead of a shell (I *only* give a shell to people I meet face to face which I can do because we're a small ISP). It works great, and since most of the users don't want to have to 'learn UNIX' it's actually a win-win solution :-) If I was doing it again I would check out pdmenu or perlmenu. Also since it's designed to be easier to use then a shell you wouldn't typically give a user vi, you would give them pico. Pine can be trivially configured so that no one can get a shell escape or access a 'UNIX Pipe'. Elm has one by default but you can turn off shell escapes if you recompile, same with tin. We wrote a simple C program which allows users to delete, rename (etc etc) files in their home directory, and also gives them access to Z-modem (this menu was written before PPP :-). It takes a little though but it *really* isn't that hard to make a moderately secure menu (I did it as a newbie with only a few screw ups which were quickly caught and fixed). Adam. ------------------------ Internet Alaska ------------------------- 4050 Lake Otis Adam Shand (v) +1 907 562 4638 Anchorage, Alaska Systems Administrator (f) +1 907 562 1677 ----------------- http://larry.earthlight.co.nz ------------------ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
