Why do some oninit process's run as root?

Posted in 1999

Summary

david.tamburin asked why some oninit processes run as root and whether all could run as informix. Neil Truby suggested they were started by an init.d script at boot. Madison Pruet said the shared memory segments are owned by root to keep unauthorized users from attaching, and many security functions need root. El Nino added that checking passwords in /etc/shadow requires root. No way to run everything as informix was given.

Auto-generated by Claude from the posts below — may be imperfect; read the full thread.

Topics: General Discussion

↪ replying to david.tamburin

Neil Truby — Tue, 27 Apr 1999 22:45:17 +0100 — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

Probably because they're being started on your server by a script in /etc/init.d at boot-up. david.tamburin wrote in message <7g4reg$g9r$1@news.xmission.com>... > >Hello all, >Why do some oninit process's run as root? >As everyone know running anything as root is a security issue on unix >systems. >Is there any way to run all process's as informix? > >Thanks in advance >david.tamburin@protegrity.com >

↪ replying to david.tamburin

Madison Pruet — Tue, 27 Apr 1999 18:43:48 -0500 — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

Well, the reason that they run as root is because the shared memory segments have an owner of root. We don't want non-authorized folks being able to attach to that. Only the shared memory message segments have a non-root ID. Also, in order to do many of the security clearance things, you need to be root. david.tamburin wrote: > Hello all, > Why do some oninit process's run as root? > As everyone know running anything as root is a security issue on unix > systems. > Is there any way to run all process's as informix? > > Thanks in advance > david.tamburin@protegrity.com

david.tamburin — Wed, 28 Apr 1999 01:04:26 -0400 — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

Hello all, Why do some oninit process's run as root? As everyone know running anything as root is a security issue on unix systems. Is there any way to run all process's as informix? Thanks in advance david.tamburin@protegrity.com

↪ replying to david.tamburin

El Nino — Wed, 28 Apr 1999 09:02:05 +0200 — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

david.tamburin wrote in message <7g4reg$g9r$1@news.xmission.com>... > >Hello all, >Why do some oninit process's run as root? >As everyone know running anything as root is a security issue on unix >systems. >Is there any way to run all process's as informix? > >Thanks in advance >david.tamburin@protegrity.com > Many reasons. e.g. when you are connecting to server, you have to provide username/password, and if you have /etc/shadow file with encrypted passwords, then ONLY root can read /etc/shadow to examine if password is OK.