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"Once the URL is shared with others, the owner loses the ability to assert access control over the video." That reminds me of Stallman's apocryphal story about
by EGreg 1y ago
"Once the URL is shared with others, the owner loses the ability to assert access control over the video."
That reminds me of Stallman's apocryphal story about favoring a password instead of ACLs, and why GNU doesn't have a "wheel" group :)
https://administratosphere.wordpress.com/2007/07/19/the-wheel-group/ https://administratosphere.wordpress.com/2007/07/19/the-whee...
Sometimes a few of the users try to hold total power over all the
rest. For example, in 1984, a few users at the MIT AI lab decided to
seize power by changing the operator password on the Twenex system and
keeping it secret from everyone else. (I was able to thwart this coup
and give power back to the users by patching the kernel, but I wouldn't
know how to do that in Unix.)
However, occasionally the rulers do tell someone. Under the usual
`su' mechanism, once someone learns the root password who sympathizes
with the ordinary users, he or she can tell the rest. The "wheel
group" feature would make this impossible, and thus cement the power of
the rulers.
I'm on the side of the masses, not that of the rulers. If you are
used to supporting the bosses and sysadmins in whatever they do, you
might find this idea strange at first.
- thaumasiotes 1y ago> Under the usual `su' mechanism, once someone learns the root password who sympathizes with the ordinary users, he or she can tell the rest. The "wheel group" feature would make this impossible, and thus cement the power of the rulers. How would that work? What is it about the wheel group that stops the sympathetic wheel from revealing his own login information to other people?
- lmm 1y ago> How would that work? What is it about the wheel group that stops the sympathetic wheel from revealing his own login information to other people? The wheel member probably doesn't want to reveal their own login information. They want to share the root password with other users; on systems without a wheel group that works, but on systems with a wheel group non-wheel users can't su.
- thaumasiotes 1y ago> The wheel member probably doesn't want to reveal their own login information. They want to share the root password with other users What's the difference? What would be something the other user could do in one of those scenarios that they couldn't do in the other one?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- lmm 1y agoThe other user would get root access in one scenario and not the other (assuming this is a system that only allows root login from the actual console, or doesn't allow root login at all).
- thaumasiotes 1y ago> The other user would get root access in one scenario and not the other What?
- zmgsabst 1y agoRoot password is a shared secret that does not implicate the leaker; sharing your personal credentials, however does.
- colechristensen 1y ago>What is it about the wheel group that stops the sympathetic wheel from revealing his own login information to other people? Then there's a paper trail, bob logs in 10 times as much as anyone else and from all over the place. Anyway this is all silly ancient politics and shared admin passwords as a method of freeing the people is long past relevant.
- zzo38computer 1y agoIf it is not possible to login as root directly (which on a multi-user system, it might only be possible to do if you are directly at the computer), then the wheel group might be one of the pieces (which should not be used alone; the wheel users still should avoid revealing the root password anyways) to protect against accidental telling the password, I suppose, since then other users cannot use the password without physical access to the computer. If they deliberately want to do so, then they could presumably just as well make the other users to also be the wheel group (or modify the software on the computer so that it does not require wheel, etc), if you have root access.