Re: [PATCH] in-core AFS multiplexor and PAG support

Alan Cox
2003-05-13T17:25:05Z

On Maw, 2003-05-13 at 17:57, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> A "user" is by definition what the unix filesystem considers to be the
> "atom of security". In fact, a "user" has no other meaning - except for
> the notion of "root", which is obviously special and has meaning outside
> of the scope of filesystems (and even here capabilities have tried to
> separate out that meaning from the "user" definition).

This has been untrue since the security hooks went in, and in some
senses before that (capabilities mean multiple "root"'s)

> "role" that is shared across processes. But I think that for _usability_
> we really want that to be _shared_ by default, and anybody who wants to
> split it should have to work at it. Exactly so that when you log in, and
> use your private key to mount some encrypted volume, _all_ your processes
> should by default get access to it. Even if the other ones were
> independent logins (another window with another ssh session to that
> machine).
>
> In other words: I really think usability should count very high on the
> list of requirements. Much higher than SELinux.

Sounds right. PAM can certainly do the splitting providing the functionality
is there to do it