On Fri, 09 Jun 2000, Anthony Barbachan wrote:
>> This has been covered several times:
>> 1. the kernel doesn't know who to contact.
>> 2. No one may be logged in
>> 3. the console may not be logged in, but other users are logged in over
>the net
>> 4. If a daemon recieves the message, who gets the output?
>> 5. root doesn't have access to the X server
>> 6. the person logged in (using X) may not be authorized to answer.
>> --
>
> I would agree with the above on a server or probably more so on a
>"unsecured" server. On someone's personal (single user) Linux box or a
>server that's well secured so only the admin has access to it I could see
>this as a useful feasible feature. Add in a timeout feature as well as a
>"Don't bug me anymore" option to the prompt screen and you can take care of
>the no user present at console and the continual prompting problematic
>situations.
>
> The complexity is another issue. Possibly a feature killing issue.
>However silently (X Windows case) failing in the background, except for text
>logs, or not giving a user a chance to fix a fixable problem does hurt a
>Linux system's user friendliness.
Not just the complexity - the security of the system. As soon as the kernel
starts asking unauthorized users for help you have a security hole. UNIX
was designed for the server.
It may be possible to setup some daemon to recieve these messeages. It may
also be possible to create a "console" application that connects to that
daemon, and with authentication of some type, be able to recieve, display and
respond to those messages. Both of these create additional potential
security problems. Each of the items in the list have to be addressed.
Part of "user friendliness" is also "hacker/cracker friendliness".
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jesse I Pollard, II Email: pollard@cats-chateau.netAny opinions expressed are solely my own.
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