Yes, and if they want to see more...  that's what the refresh button on the
browser is for.  (Yes, I'm smirking.)

Around here anonymous FTP is a no-no so if someone needs a file distributed
it goes up under the /HTML tree.  (Yes, I'm _that_ lazy, I symlink /HTML to
wherever the document root is on the various systems I've got w/ web
servers, so it's kinda like symlinking /dev/tape to your "regular" tape
drive;  before Linux the "real name" of various devices tended to be, well,
rather obscure.)

And I'm aware that any application that has a shell escape (like "less")
won't enforce the restricted shell, so you may need to look at chrooting if
you want _real_ security which symlinking can't get around.

I once wrote an old menu tool that I still use today for my wife;  it can
be exec'd from the .profile so that she has a nice
arrow-down-then-hit-enter means of accessing her files (so I can
dynamically generate a menu and enter it so she can _see_ the files she
wants to view).  A determined effort to use less' shell escape would work,
of course, since I've not re-written the linux-provided utilities for
security.

I'm thinking though that the web access is the smart way.  If you use a CGI
you can look at the requestor's IP address and divine whether the person is
in the right subnet to read the file, too, but this last isn't *really*
security.  Never mistake obscurity for security.
(http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-back.html for the curious.)

--------------------
John R. Campbell, Speaker to Machines (GNUrd)      {813-356|697}-5322
Adsumo ergo raptus sum
MacOS X: Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging
Windows.
Red Hat Certified Engineer (#803004680310286)
IBM Certified: IBM AIX 4.3 System Administration, System Support
----- Forwarded by John Campbell/Tampa/IBM on 10/12/2004 10:17 AM -----

                      Adam Thornton
                      <[EMAIL PROTECTED]        To:       [EMAIL PROTECTED]
                      mine.net>                cc:
                      Sent by: Linux on        Subject:  Re: [LINUX-390] Confining a 
user to the home directory specified in the
                      390 Port                  user record
                      <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
                      IST.EDU>


                      10/12/2004 10:12
                      AM
                      Please respond to
                      Linux on 390 Port





On Tue, 2004-10-12 at 08:16, James Melin wrote:
> I thought about that but they wanna be able to less and tail the file.  A

Maybe you want to, rather than let them have a real shell, just a a CGI
app that displays the file(s) and lets you scroll back and forth in it
(them)?

Adam

----------------------------------------------------------------------
For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390

Reply via email to