System management and system file protection

[Rod Stephens]

In article <5719 at umd5.umd.edu> steveg at umd5.umd.edu (Steve Green) writes:
>In article <1989Dec2.214424.5719 at athena.mit.edu> crowston at athena.mit.edu (Kevin Crowston) writes:
>< all kinds of stuff deleted >
>>
>>What I've thought about doing is creating a group, like operator, and
>>giving that group read/write permissions on files like /etc/passwd,
< lots deleted >

>Anyone who has write permission on /etc/passwd might as well be given the root
>password.  Also, anyone that is doing work on a machine should not be in a mode
< lots more deleted >

While it is true that anyone with write permission on /etc/passwd can
break the system wide open, I think the idea is to protect the person
from accidentally doing something stupid. I must confess that I once
forgot that I was logged on as root and blew away about half of my
operating system.
-- 
Rod Stephens
GTE Laboratories, Inc
(617)466-4182