Single User Unix needs a halfway root

mike at brl-vgr mike at brl-vgr
Tue Aug 23 16:38:08 AEST 1983


From:      Mike Muuss <mike at brl-vgr>

At Johns Hopkins, the dual-personality shell WAS built (and it still
in use), although for a somewhat different purpose than you desire.
There, the intention was to have an "operator" shell that would
run certain commands a ROOT (like PS, SHUTDOWN, etc), and the
rest as a normal user ("operator").  The set of commands which would
run privleged was carefully selected to prevent operators from gaining
undue control over the machine, yet still be able to take backups, etc.

The version which is presently running at JHU is based on the old V6
shell, but the concepts employed in the code might very well
be moveable into newer shells.  Contact Bob Miles <RSM at BRL> or
Bob Jesse <RNJ%JHU at Udel-relay> for details.
		-Mike



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