Puzzle of the Day
The UNIX operating system (and most computer systems) have an
all-powerful user (root or operator or wheel).
- Why does such a user exist?
- Dennis Ritchie called the existance of this user "both a theoretical and
practical flaw." Why?
- If you were designing an operating system with security being a key goal,
could you avoid creating such a user? If so how? If not, how would you
implement the functionality of the root user?
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Department of Computer Science
University of California at Davis
Davis, CA 95616-8562
Page last modified on 2/14/98