*BSD News Article 45093


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From: shields@tembel.org (Michael Shields)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.unix.admin,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.ultrix,comp.unix.xenix,comp.security.unix
Subject: Re: Shutdown Account
Followup-To: comp.unix.admin,comp.security.unix
Date: 7 Jun 1995 06:24:31 -0000
Organization: Tembel's Hedonic Commune
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <3r3gmv$qhr@yage.tembel.org>
References: <3r2j7f$7p4@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: yage.tembel.org
NNTP-Posting-User: shields

[Posted to Sun, generic Unix admin, BSD, shell (?), Solaris, Ultrix,
Xenix, *and* security groups?  Followups trimmed.]

[`inet' distribution removed.]

In article <3r2j7f$7p4@apakabar.cc.columbia.edu>,
Chen Zhou <czen@inibara.cc.columbia.edu> wrote:
> 	In order to let the non-unix personnel at work to gracefully 
> shutdown the system instead of having them just flip the power. I 
> created a uid=0 account named shutdown with a password, i had its shell
> linked to /usr/etc/halt and I disabled root login from everywhere else
> besides the console.

You might want to use a wrapper that double-checks that it's being
run from the console, and exec's halt without arguments.  This adds
redundant security, and also prevents anyone from su'ing to it when not
on the console.

Don't forget to syslog failures.

> well, thanks much for the response. please also cc a copy of your post
> to me via email at <czen@columbia.edu>

Done; please reply in news.
-- 
Shields.