John Haywood wrote:

>On Saturday 30 March 2002 11:57, you wrote:
>
>>May be there is a AUTH system that could be used for NFS..  but a lot of
>>text that I read just keep telling me how insecure that NFS is..
>>
>
>Isn't that what NFS stands for <old 'nix joke approaching>
>
>No f&&**�ng Security ......
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
>Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
>
hmmmm....

Well, nfs can mount filesystems on other machines _only_if_ the other 
machine offers it and offers it specifically to the host you are trying 
to mount it from.  It does not necessarily give write access, and it 
does not give root privileges unless it is set for it.

It is machine specific rather than user specific, but then mounting the 
nfs direectory is normally a root function on the local machine 
performing the remote access,   This can be controlled (in the sense of 
giving non-root users access) on the local machine by editing sudoers 
and/or setting up a wheel group and giving some users access to it.

So the graininess of the security is controlled by the setup of the 
network nodes and not by nfs directly, and someone who throws all gates 
open in setting up nfs is asking for trouble.

But I set up the following:

15 clerical positions had machines where a READ-ONLY nfs mount at boot 
gave them access to a backup of their work files on an internet 
gateway/fileserver.  

At a staggered time near the close of work every day, a cron job popped 
up, gave the user a message, after two minutes killed the nfs connection 
then initiated a new one (root only with write access to the directory 
containing the directory containing the backup files, then wrote the 
day's changes over to the fileserver, killed the mount and remounted the 
read-only.

So the level of security is largely a function of how the local network 
is set up.  Of course Samba can be used linux-to-linux and can be made 
quite secure for those who want all the security in the sharing system, 
rather than in the setup.

Civileme




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