> >that's a feature, not a bug.  It was shipped that way from UCB, and
> >it seems rational to me.
> >
> >There's a reason it's in rc.local.
> 
> Ummm what is the reason?

It's in rc.local so that people can change it.  i happen to think that
the explicit chmod there isn't a bad idea (even though it's not
necessary), because it lets people know what's going on.

> I know that Sun ship their system the same
> way - I changed rc.local to make the motd mode 644.

Exactly the point; you can do it if you'd like.

> Yeah sure, I know
> the reasons about putting informative messages into the motd *BUT* it
> does open you up to idiots putting "the sysadmin sux" type messages in
> motd or, worse, the basis for a denial of service attack by putting
> some escape sequence in there.

Frankly, if you're running a system where people do that sort of
stuff, and you let them do it, well...

> Considering the stance on security in the rest of the system then a
> world writable motd seems a bit of an anachronism.  How about making
> it 644 by default and putting a comment in the rc.local telling people
> how to change it if they want the file world writable?

i think that's what the chmod in there is for; it tells the admin that
it's going to be world writable.  If they don't read their /etc/rc*
files, they probably shouldn't be runinng a "public access" system.

Note that this was not our change; Net/2, and 4.4-Lite ship with an
/etc/rc.local that does that.  I don't know their exact reasons for
shipping it that way, but i can probably find out in a little bit...


cgd

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