/etc/passwd permissions

[Ken McVay]

With /etc/passwd readable by everyone, it can be send uucp by anyone
with a shell account. Granted, encryption provides some protection, but
would it hurt anything to simply set the perms to r--r----- root root?

/bin/passwd runs suid root, as does su - while 'l' and similar utilities
do not, and show only the owner's userid #, rather than the owner's name.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I'd like to learn a great deal more
about protecting the system before I'll be comfortable with shell
accounts... any suggestions regarding the /etc/passwd and /etc/group
files, and others?




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