Re: [PATCH] capabilites, take 2

[Olaf Dietsche <olaf+list.linux-kernel@olafdietsche.de>]

Andy Lutomirski <luto@myrealbox.com> writes:

> I'm not convinced that Posix's version makes any sense.  Also, there are
> apparently a number of drafts around which disagree on what the right
> rules are.  (My copy, for example, matches the old rules exactly, but
> the old rules caused the sendmail problem.)

Don't confuse POSIX _semantics_ with implementation _bugs_.

>  And, under Posix, what does
> the inheritable mask mean, anyway?
>
> Also, I don't find the posix rules to be useful (why is there an
> inheritable mask if all it does is to cause caps to be dropped on
> exec, when the user could just manually drop them?).

You can use the inheritable set, if you want to give capabilities to a
process when it's started by an already priviledged parent (e.g. a
root process), but not when it's started by a regular user.

See <http://www.olafdietsche.de/linux/capability/> for an example.

Regards, Olaf.