[SWLUG] kppp

[Telsa Gwynne]

On Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 12:25:22PM +0000 or thereabouts, Bernard wrote:
> On Tuesday 22 January 2002 3:17 pm, Davage, Marcus wrote:
> > Hi.
> > I'm running Mandrake 8.1 with an LTmodem with all the correct drivers,
> > which run well logged on as root, but not as a non-root account. I've been
> > told that I should only run kppp as root, never as a user. Is this true?
> 
> Since nobody else is answering I will give you the benefit of my profound 
> ignorance. Excuse me if I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs. As I 

I didn't reply because I was away. I am curious what the reason you
were given for this was. (The "only run it as root" thing.) I am
a strong believer in never running with more permissions than 
necessary: and in using "sudo" when you need root because it logs
everything, which is very handy when you want to check what you
did later!

> understand things it is more secure to run pppd as root, don't ask me why, 
> security issues bore me stiff. I hooked my Mandrake 8.1 off the front of a 
> spanish linux magazine and kppp is universally executable on this one. The 
> security boys have been spreading fudap ( that's fud and paranoia) for a 
> while now  'cos security's the only thing you can really sell in the linux 
> market, and its evergreen, you can always threaten another virus just around 
> the corner. In fact, unless you're storing the details of your international 
> drugs cartel, or are in daily contact with the al-qaeda network, linux of 
> itself is probably secure enough for now, and for some time to come. You can 

I don't agree entirely with this. "Linux, with regular updating as
updates come out", yes. But running an old version of some packages
can get you into trouble.

> get kppp to work for a user by altering the permissions on kppp, etc/ppp, 
> usr/sbin/pppd (I think, or perm any two from three, or play around 'til it 
> works). If you need any more help come back and we'll blow your box up 
> together:)

This is ringing a bell though: either kppp or the Gnome version of
the same tool was mentioned on gnome-list a while back with some
comment about making particular files writeable. If you're still
stuck, you could check there in this month's archives.

Telsa