Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 09:08:09 +0900
        From: Jun Kuriyama <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
        To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
        Cc: Current <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
        Subject: dump -L and privilege
        X-ASK-Info: Confirmed by User

        I'm trying to use dump -L option to dump with snapshot on
        -current/RELENG_5_0 family.

        I found dump -L needs writable permission to the device (that's
        reasonable because it *writes* snapshot file).  But when I try to dump
        by operator group, it's impossible to dump with -L option (target
        device has root:operator and crw-r-----).

        This behavior is understandable.  But in actual backup operations,
        what should we do?  I'd like to hear what you thought in design.

        (1) Do dump as root with -L option.
        (2) Do chmod g+w for device.
        (3) Other ideas?


        -- 
        Jun Kuriyama <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> // IMG SRC, Inc.
                     <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> // FreeBSD Project

Sorry for the slow reply. I am just back from several weeks of
travel and am trying to get caught up on my email.

You have raised an important point here. By default (that is when
vfs.usermount == 0) only root is allowed to do mounts. Since dump -L
needs to do a snapshot, that can only be done by a root process.
I see two possible solutions to the problem. The first would be
to change the default for vfs.usermount == 1 and then have dump -L
create the snapshot in a directory owned by "operator" (or by
whatever user runs the dumps). Then the snapshot could be created,
used, and deleted by that user. The other alternative would be to
create a setuid-to-root program that would take a snapshot and
chown it to the user that does dumps. This setuid program could
then be invoked by dump -L to create a snapshot for it. I favor
the first approach, but there may be good security issues of which
I am unaware that make that a bad choice. Perhaps we could get
someone like Robert Watson to comment on these choices.

        Kirk McKusick

To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message

Reply via email to