make /dev/pf world readable?

[Jan Sepp]

Hello,

I am creating a shell script that gathers PF statistics for my various 
interfaces, as in pfctl -i <<if>>  -vvsI . (Yes, I am aware of the 
existence of rpfcd, but as I want to monitor only one local box and 
write the output directly to console, that seems overkill to me.)   I am 
running OpenBSD 3.6 on a Soekris.

This script should not run as root. If I run it as a non-privileged 
user, I get an error. Basically, the problem is in the mode bits for 
/dev/pf,  which are crw-------, owner root.

I googled around and found that Squid happily changes the group and 
group mode bits on /dev/pf. Is that "safe", from a compatibility point 
of view? And is it secure? Can I do it too? What would be the 
implications (apart from being incompatible with squid, obviously)?

What are the security implications if I go one step beyond that and make 
/dev/pf world readable? I understand that all my users then can read the 
rule set -- and good luck to them. Anything else?

TIA,

Jan Sepp