why login as root while installing informix 7.x

Posted in 2001

sudhakar — Thu, 25 Jan 2001 04:30:02 -0000 — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

hello, can any one tell me why we have to login as root when we install informix 7.x .. this question i got in brainbench cert exam.. can any one help me out?? bye sudhakar -- Posted via CNET Help.com http://www.help.com/

↪ replying to sudhakar

Andrew Hamm — Thu, 25 Jan 2001 16:07:40 +1100 — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

sudhakar wrote in message ... >can any one tell me why we have to login as root when we install informix >7.x .. >this question i got in brainbench cert exam.. >can any one help me out?? Emm, because Informix tells us to? Oh, sorry, that's facetious... It's because root has total power to put files anywhere, and to set file permissions that might be banned by O/S security for less privileged users. Some of the programs in $INFORMIXDIR/bin (and a few other spots) are "set user id" otherwise known as SUID programs, ie when they start up they masquerade as root or informix no matter who runs them so this is definitely a security issue. Many O/S can be configured to ban ordinary users from setting this. Also, you most likely need to mess around with allocating disk chunks and playing with /dev, /etc/services, installing boot scripts etc so basically, installing Informix is a job for SuperUser! (S) You can see the SUID programs with ls -lsa $INFORMIXDIR/bin and looking for files with s in the place where you would expect to see x If it's in the position for the owner's x, then the program will masquerade as the owner of the file (eg root) and if it's in the group position it will masquerade with group id of the group owner of the file (eg informix) BTW: Best piece of advice for people in possession of the root password: First thing you do after you login as root is to logout again. Saved me a few times... PS - no other account should have uid or gid of 0, and no other user should be in group informix or share its uid. It's leaving you open for accidents.

↪ replying to sudhakar

Lee Bacall — Fri, 02 Feb 2001 01:39:51 -0500 — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

Simple, It requires PERMISSION to create files and directories The files created will then only be able to be deleted by one with superuser privileges. Lee Bacall bnarystar sudhakar wrote: > hello, > can any one tell me why we have to login as root when we install informix > 7.x .. > this question i got in brainbench cert exam.. > can any one help me out?? > bye > sudhakar > > -- > Posted via CNET Help.com > http://www.help.com/