On Sun, Apr 17, 2005 at 12:12:13PM -0400, Xin Zhao wrote:
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> Yes. I know, with immutable, even root cannot modify sensitive
> files. What I am curious is if an intruder has root access, he may
> have many ways to turn off the immutable protection and modify files.
> So immutable is designed just to prevent a valid root from making
> silly mistakes?
Probably yes, but it also provides a first level of security :
- if the intruder launches programs blindly, he will not systematically
get write access. Eg: if he abuses a CGI to call things like
echo r00t::0:0::/:/bin/sh >>/etc/passwd
it will not work.
- if you give root access to other people on your file-system but you
don't give them the CAP_LINUX_IMMUTABLE capability, they will not be
able to modify the protected files. Useful when those files are the
ones you use to grant them access ;-)
Regards,
Willy
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