[PATCH] portmaster with SU_CMD

[Stefan Sperling]

On Mon, Nov 12, 2007 at 10:24:19AM -0800, Garrett Cooper wrote:
> Greg Minshall wrote:
>> i'd add my two cents for being able to do builds without running as root.
>
>    Building as non-root user and then installing as root has its caveats I 
> would think..
>
> Pro:
> - Compiling as a non-root user and then installing as root reduces the 
> security risk of a possible exploit in the portmaster / base system 
> infrastructure.

I myself am not hoping that not compiling as root will save my
system from being cracked by Mr. Malicious, and I would not advise
anyone to believe in such illusions.

Think about it, make install is still vulnerable :)

Compiling ports as non-root simply follows from the principle
of least authority.

I hope it will save me from bugs in some makefile or configure
script touching files on my system it should not be touching.
I could do it with portupgrade, it never hurt, now I can do
it with portmaster, too.

> Con:
> - People with sufficient permissions (possibly caused by bad umask 
> settings) but without root access, can modify the binaries / recompile 
> files to suit their needs prior to them being installed as root

Indeed. Of course, on a multiuser system you should take proper
precautions before using portmaster with -S.

I'd like to stress again that the patch does not stop anyone
from simply running portmaster entirely as root if desired.

It's just like the -s switch portupgrade has had for ages.
I wonder if there was a similar discussion about that switch
when it was first introduced...

-- 
stefan
http://stsp.name                                         PGP Key: 0xF59D25F0
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