Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Stroller <root@××××××××××××××××××.uk>
To: gentoo-dev@g.o
Cc: zack@×××××××××.com
Subject: [gentoo-dev] I've Got Root Was: Re: [gentoo-dev] Good Work, Lads!
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 00:21:05
Message-Id: BB1FFAFF.135E2%root@stellar.eclipse.co.uk
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] Good Work, Lads! by Spider
1 > From: Spider <spider@g.o>
2 > Organization: Chaotic
3 > Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 23:46:47 +0200
4 >
5 > begin quote
6 > On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 21:09:03 +0200
7 > Paul de Vrieze <pauldv@g.o> wrote:
8 >
9 >> you seem to be mailing as root. If that is true, and your username is
10 >> not aliassed to root, that is unsafe. One think making linux more
11 >> resistant to viruses is that on linux most things do not run as root.
12 >> E-mail clients certainly do not need to run as root.
13 >>
14 >
15 > Ill bash in, quoting a message that appeared in -user the other day:
16 >
17 > -----
18 >> ...
19 >> If I were you, I would post from
20 >> a different user than root.
21 >
22 > Erm... but, of course, I do. I rather assumed that would be obvious.
23 >...
24 >
25 > [silva:~] stroller% host stellar.eclipse.co.uk
26 > stellar.eclipse.co.uk mail is handled (pri=10) by
27 > mx1.ex.eclipse.net.uk stellar.eclipse.co.uk mail is handled (pri=20) by
28 > mx2.ex.eclipse.net.uk
29 > [silva:~] stroller% nslookup stellar.eclipse.co.uk
30 > Server: gentoo.lan
31 > Address: 192.168.1.43
32 >
33 > *** No address (A) records available for stellar.eclipse.co.uk
34 > [silva:~] stroller%
35 >
36 > As you can see, stellar.eclipse is virtually hosted. Is it really a risk
37 > for me to post using this address..?
38
39 Yeah, I was really quite astonished by the previous message in respect to my
40 email address. I don't really know yet how to react to it, which is why I
41 haven't changed my addy.
42
43 I was initially quite offended that someone had mailed me to advise me "not
44 to read mail as root" - I felt quite patronised. Do people really do that..?
45
46 Whilst I didn't know any better than to log in as root the first week I had
47 my Indigo (my first Unix box purchased 2nd-hand for £30 from the Comp Sci
48 department) I've certainly never used the root account for reading mail,
49 surfing the web or anything besides essential system administration on any
50 working or live or network-connected machine.
51
52 I appreciate now that Mr Gilburd (who, as Spyder observes, mailed me on this
53 subject recently) and Paul were both well intentioned with their
54 suggestions, but this raises other questions to me.
55
56 If there really are folks out there reading mail from their root account (I
57 mean, _is this possible?_), surely we need to be educating them better..?
58
59 Maybe the NEED for a regular user should be spelled out more explicitly in
60 the Gentoo installation documents. I see now that the subject is rather
61 brushed over by a single line containing a link the the FAQ & the question
62 "Everyone seems to think that i shouldn't be using root for everyday use,
63 how can i add another user?"
64
65 Maybe superadduser should be part of the base stages installation..?
66 Instructions to `superadduser yournamehere` could be placed right before the
67 setting-root-password section of the installation guide; the root password
68 section could contain the explanation:
69 "the root password is used in conjunction with the `su` command when you
70 need to perform administrative tasks on your Gentoo box".
71 Since completion of a stage-3 install is intended to provide a complete, if
72 minimal, Gentoo-Linux installation, ISTM that adding a non-root user is
73 perhaps an essential, rather than an optional, part of the process.
74
75 I was really quite surprised when an redhat-newbie acquaintance recently
76 showed me it was possible to log in as root to the GUI on a modern Linux
77 system. I mean: why does the (kdm?) graphical login window permit this..?
78
79 The root address was originally a joke. Like on those "I've got root"
80 t-shirts at the GeekStore. When my ISP asked me what
81 address@×××××××××××××××××××.uk I wanted, of course "root" was a cool choice.
82 I see Spider is associated with a similar organisation.
83
84 So I don't know yet whether I'll be changing my address or not. I mean: I
85 like it. Why should I change it, just because it confounds people..?
86
87 Thanks for tolerating 2 long posts in one day,
88
89 Stroller.
90
91
92 --
93 gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list

Replies

Subject Author
[gentoo-dev] [OT] Re: I've Got Root Was: Re: [gentoo-dev] Good Work, Lads! "D. Tuinstra" <tuinstra@×××××.com>
Re: [gentoo-dev] I've Got Root Was: Re: [gentoo-dev] Good Work, Lads! Mike Frysinger <vapier@g.o>
Re: [gentoo-dev] I've Got Root Was: Re: [gentoo-dev] Good Work, Lads! Zack Gilburd <zack@×××××××××.com>
Re: [gentoo-dev] I've Got Root Was: Re: [gentoo-dev] Good Work, Lads! Dhruba Bandopadhyay <dhruba@××××××××××××.uk>