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| -rw-r--r-- | doc/guix.texi | 19 |
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi index 96d545698f..ea133d519a 100644 --- a/doc/guix.texi +++ b/doc/guix.texi @@ -339,7 +339,7 @@ System Configuration * Keyboard Layout:: How the system interprets key strokes. * Locales:: Language and cultural convention settings. * Services:: Specifying system services. -* Setuid Programs:: Programs running with root privileges. +* Setuid Programs:: Programs running with elevated privileges. * X.509 Certificates:: Authenticating HTTPS servers. * Name Service Switch:: Configuring libc's name service switch. * Initial RAM Disk:: Linux-Libre bootstrapping. @@ -15414,7 +15414,7 @@ instance to support new system services. * Keyboard Layout:: How the system interprets key strokes. * Locales:: Language and cultural convention settings. * Services:: Specifying system services. -* Setuid Programs:: Programs running with root privileges. +* Setuid Programs:: Programs running with elevated privileges. * X.509 Certificates:: Authenticating HTTPS servers. * Name Service Switch:: Configuring libc's name service switch. * Initial RAM Disk:: Linux-Libre bootstrapping. @@ -35755,22 +35755,23 @@ Extra command line options for @code{nix-service-type}. @section Setuid Programs @cindex setuid programs -Some programs need to run with ``root'' privileges, even when they are +@cindex setgid programs +Some programs need to run with elevated privileges, even when they are launched by unprivileged users. A notorious example is the @command{passwd} program, which users can run to change their password, and which needs to access the @file{/etc/passwd} and @file{/etc/shadow} files---something normally restricted to root, for -obvious security reasons. To address that, these executables are -@dfn{setuid-root}, meaning that they always run with root privileges +obvious security reasons. To address that, @command{passwd} should be +@dfn{setuid-root}, meaning that it always runs with root privileges (@pxref{How Change Persona,,, libc, The GNU C Library Reference Manual}, for more info about the setuid mechanism). The store itself @emph{cannot} contain setuid programs: that would be a security issue since any user on the system can write derivations that populate the store (@pxref{The Store}). Thus, a different mechanism is -used: instead of changing the setuid bit directly on files that are in -the store, we let the system administrator @emph{declare} which programs -should be setuid root. +used: instead of changing the setuid or setgid bits directly on files that +are in the store, we let the system administrator @emph{declare} which +programs should be entrusted with these additional privileges. The @code{setuid-programs} field of an @code{operating-system} declaration contains a list of @code{<setuid-program>} denoting the @@ -38000,7 +38001,7 @@ pointing to the given file. @defvr {Scheme Variable} setuid-program-service-type Type for the ``setuid-program service''. This service collects lists of executable file names, passed as gexps, and adds them to the set of -setuid-root programs on the system (@pxref{Setuid Programs}). +setuid and setgid programs on the system (@pxref{Setuid Programs}). @end defvr @defvr {Scheme Variable} profile-service-type |