Messages in this thread |  | | Date | 13 Dec 1996 23:33:01 -0000 | From | rdm@tad ... | Subject | Re: Proposal: restrict link(2) |
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> Worse still! The new copy of the file can have different access > protections; it could even be made world-readable!
Um.. for what it's worth, here's an example of a case where this might be significant.
$ mkdir groupdir $ chmod groupdir 750 $ chgrp devel groupdir $ cd groupdir $ touch BetaReport $ chgrp prof BetaReport $ chmod 664 BetaReport $ emacs BetaReport
If hardlinks to non-writeable files are prohibitted, then the system would prevent BetaReport from being updated except by people who are in both "devel" and "prof", and from being read by anyone outside "devel". Nested directories could be used to "and" group permission requirements, and hard links could be used to "or" group permission requirements.
As things currently stand, someone in "devel" can trivially give write access to BetaReport to all people in "prof", even if the intersection of devel and prof is but a small fraction of devel. The system, as it currently stands, wouldn't even leave a record of who did this.
Hopefully, this is enough description to allow the idea to be discussed on its merits (or lack).
-- Raul
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