diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'winsup/doc/ntsec.sgml')
-rw-r--r-- | winsup/doc/ntsec.sgml | 797 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 797 deletions
diff --git a/winsup/doc/ntsec.sgml b/winsup/doc/ntsec.sgml deleted file mode 100644 index b44c04919..000000000 --- a/winsup/doc/ntsec.sgml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,797 +0,0 @@ -<sect1 id="ntsec"><title>NT security</title> - -<para>The setting of POSIX like object permissions is controlled by the -<link linkend="mount-table">mount option</link> <literal>(no)acl</literal> -which is set to <literal>acl</literal> by default. The design goal -is to utilize the Windows access control API to implement real POSIX -permissions.</para> - -<para>We start with a short overview. Note that this overview must -be necessarily short. If you want to learn more about the Windows security -model, see the <ulink url="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374860(VS.85).aspx">Access Control</ulink> article in MSDN documentation.</para> - -<sect2 id="ntsec-common"><title>NT security</title> - -<para>In the NT security model, almost any "object" is securable. -"Objects" are files, processes, threads, semaphores, etc.</para> - -<para>Every object has a data structure called "security descriptor" (SD) -attached. The SD contains all information necessary to control who can -how access an object. The SD of an object consists of five parts:</para> - -<itemizedlist spacing="compact"> -<listitem><para>Flags which control several aspects of this SD. This is -not discussed here.</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>The SID of the object owner.</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>The SID of the object owner group.</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>A list of "Access Control Entries" (ACE), called the -"Discretionary Access Control List" (DACL).</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>Another list of ACEs, called the -"Security Access Control List" (SACL), which doesn't matter for our -purpose.</para></listitem> -</itemizedlist> - -<para>Every ACE contains a so-called "Security IDentifier" (SID) and -other stuff which is explained a bit later. Let's talk about the SID first. -</para> - -<para>A SID is a unique identifier for users, groups, computers and AD -domains. SIDs are basically comparable to POSIX UIDs and GIDs, but are -more complicated because they are unique across multiple machines or -domains. A SID is a structure of multiple numerical values. There's -a convenient convention to type SIDs. Here's an example:</para> - -<para>SID of a machine "foo":</para> - -<screen> - S-1-5-21-165875785-1005667432-441284377 -</screen> - -<para>SID of a user "johndoe" of the system "foo":</para> - -<screen> - S-1-5-21-165875785-1005667432-441284377-1023 -</screen> - -<para>The leading "S" has no further meaning except to show that this is -a SID. The next number is a version number which is always 1 so far. -The next two numbers are the authority which shows the initiated what -kind of SID this is. There are a couple of builtin accounts and -accounts with very special meaning. However, computer and domain SIDs -always start with "S-1-5-21". The next three numbers, all 32 bit values, -are the unique 96 bit identifier of the comupter system. This is -hopefully unique all over the world, but in practice it's sufficient if -the comuter SIDs are unique within a single Windows network.</para> - -<para>As you can see in the above example, SIDs of users (and groups) -are identical to the computer SID, except for an additional part, the -so-called "relative identifier" (RID). So the SID of a user is always -uniquely attached to the system on which the account has been generated.</para> - -<para>It's a bit different in domains. The domain has its own SID, and -that SID is identical to the SID of the first domain controller, on -which the domain is created. Domain user SIDs look exactly like the -computer user SIDs, the leading part is just the domain SID and the RID -is created when the user is created.</para> - -<para>Ok, consider you created a new domain "bar" on some new domain -controller and you would like to create a domain account "johndoe":</para> - -<para>SID of a domain "bar.local":</para> - -<screen> - S-1-5-21-186985262-1144665072-740312968 -</screen> - -<para>SID of a user "johndoe" in the domain "bar.local":</para> - -<screen> - S-1-5-21-186985262-1144665072-740312968-1207 -</screen> - -<para>Ok, so you now have two accounts called johndoe, one account -created on the machine "foo", one created in the domain "bar.local". -Both have different SIDs and not even the RID is the same. How do -the systems know it's the same account? After all, the name is -the same, right? The answer is, these accounts are NOT identical. -For all the machines know there are two different accounts, one is -"FOO\johndoe", the other one is "BAR\johndoe" or "johndoe@bar.local". -Different SID, different account. Full stop. -</para> - -<para>The last part of the SID, the so called "Relative IDentifier" (RID), -is by default used as UID and/or GID under Cygwin when you create the -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename> and <filename>/etc/group</filename> -files using the <command>mkpasswd</command> and <command>mkgroup</command> -tools. Domain account UIDs and GIDs are offset by 10000 by default -which might be a bit low for very big organizations. Fortunately there's -an option in both tools to change the offset...</para> - -<para>Do you still remember the SIDs with special meaning? In offical -notation they are called "well-known SIDs". For example, POSIX has no GID -for the group of "all users" or "world" or "others". The last three rwx -bits in a permission value just represent the permissions for "everyone -who is not the owner or is member of the owning group". Windows has a -SID for these poor souls, the "Everyone" SID. Other well-known SIDs -represent more circumstances instead of actual users or groups. Here -are a few examples for well-known SIDs:</para> - -<screen> -Everyone S-1-1-0 Simply everyone... -Batch S-1-5-3 Processes started via the task - scheduler are member of this group. -Interactive S-1-5-4 Only processes of users which are - logged in via an interactive - session are members here. -Authenticated Users S-1-5-11 Users which have gone through - the authentication process and - survived. Anonymously accessing - users are not incuded here. -SYSTEM S-1-5-18 A special account which has all - kinds of dangerous rights, sort of - an uber-root account. -</screen> - -<para>For a full list please refer to -<ulink url="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa379649.aspx">Well-known SIDs</ulink>. -Naturally well-known SIDs are the same on each machine, so they are -not unique to a machine or domain. They have the same meaning across -the Windows network.</para> - -<para>Additionally there are a couple of well-known builtin groups, -which have the same SID on every machine and which have certain user -rights by default:</para> - -<screen> -administrators S-1-5-32-544 -users S-1-5-32-545 -guests S-1-5-32-546 -... -</screen> - -<para>For instance, every account is usually member in the "Users" -group. All administrator accounts are member of the "Administrators" -group. That's all about it as far as single machines are involved. In -a domain environment it's a bit more tricky. Since these SIDs are not -unique to a machine, every domain user and every domain group can be a -member of these well known groups. Consider the domain group "Domain -Admins". This group is by default in the "Administrators" group. Let's -assume the above computer called "foo" is a member machine of the domain -"bar.local". If you stick the user "BAR\johndoe" into the group "Domain -Admins", this guy will automatically be a mamber of the administrators -group on "foo", when logging in on "foo". Neat, isn't it?</para> - -<para>Back to ACE and ACL. POSIX is able to create three different -permissions, the permissions for the owner, for the group and for the -world. In contrast the Windows ACL has a potentially infinite number of -members... as long as they fit into 64K. Every member is an ACE. -ACE consist of three parts:</para> - -<itemizedlist spacing="compact"> -<listitem><para>The type of the ACE (allow ACE or deny ACE).</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>Permission bits, 32 of them.</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>The SID for which the permissions are allowed or denied.</para></listitem> -</itemizedlist> - -<para>The two (for us) important types of ACEs are the "access allowed -ACE" and the "access denied ACE". As the names imply, the allow ACE -tells the system to allow the given permissions to the SID, the deny ACE -results in denying the specific permission bits.</para> - -<para>The possible permissions on objects are more detailed than in -POSIX. For example, the permission to delete an object is different -from the permission to change object data, and even changing object data -can be separated into different permission bits for different kind of -data.</para> - -</sect2> - -<sect2 id="ntsec-files"><title id="ntsec-files.title">File permissions</title> - -<para>On NTFS and if the <literal>noacl</literal> mount option is not -specified for a mount point, Cygwin sets file permissions as in POSIX. -Basically this is done by defining a SD with the matching owner and group -SIDs, and a DACL which contains ACEs for the owner, the group and for -"Everyone", which represents what POSIX calls "others".</para> - -<para>To use NT security correctly, Cygwin depends on the files -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename> and <filename>/etc/group</filename>. -These files define the traslation between the Cygwin uid/gid and the -Windows SID. The SID is stored in the pw_gecos field in -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename>, and in the gr_passwd field in -<filename>/etc/group</filename>. Since the pw_gecos field can contain -more information than just a SID, there are some rules for the layout. -It's required that the SID is the last entry of the pw_gecos field, -assuming that the entries in pw_gecos are comma-separated. The -commands <command>mkpasswd</command> and <command>mkgroup</command> -usually do this for you.</para> - -<para>Another interesting entry in the pw_gecos field (which is also -usually created by running <command>mkpasswd</command>) is the Windows user -name entry. It takes the form "U-domain\username" and is typically used -by services to authenticate a user. Logging in through <command>ssh</command> -or <command>telnet</command> are two typical scenarios. -</para> - -<para>A typical snippet from <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>:</para> - -<example id="ntsec-passwd"> -<title>/etc/passwd:</title> -<screen> -SYSTEM:*:18:544:,S-1-5-18:: -Administrators:*:544:544:,S-1-5-32-544:: -Administrator:unused:500:513:U-FOO\Administrator,S-1-5-21-790525478-115176313-839522115-500:/home/Administrator:/bin/bash -corinna:unused:11001:11125:U-BAR\corinna,S-1-5-21-2913048732-1697188782-3448811101-1001:/home/corinna:/bin/tcsh -</screen> -</example> - -<para>The SYSTEM entry is usually needed by services. The Administrators -entry (Huh? A group in /etc/passwd?) is only here to allow -<command>ls</command> to print some file ownerships correctly. Windows -doesn't care if the owner of a file is a user or a group. In older -versions of Windows NT the default ownership for files created by an -administrator account was set to the group Administrators instead of to -the creating user account. This has changed, but for those older -systems it's convenient to have the Administrators group in -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename>.</para> - -<para>The really interesting entries are the next two. The Administrator -entry is for the local administrator, the corinna entry matches the corinna -account in the domain BAR. The information given in the pw_gecos field -are all we need to exactly identify an account, and to have a two way -translation, from Windows account name/SID to Cygwin account name uid and -vice versa. Having this complete information allows us to choose a Cygwin -name and uid which doesn't have to match the Windows account at all. As -long as the pw_gecos information is available, we're on the safe side:</para> - -<example id="ntsec-passwd-tweaked"> -<title>/etc/passwd, tweaked:</title> -<screen> -root:unused:0:513:U-FOO\Administrator,S-1-5-21-790525478-115176313-839522115-500:/home/Administrator:/bin/bash -thursday_next:unused:11001:11125:U-BAR\corinna,S-1-5-21-2913048732-1697188782-3448811101-1001:/home/corinna:/bin/tcsh -</screen> -</example> - -<para> The above <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> will still work fine. -You can now login via <command>ssh</command> as the user "root", and -Cygwin dutyfully translates "root" into the Windows user -"FOO\Administrators" and files owned by FOO\Administrators are shown to -have the uid 0 when calling <command>ls -ln</command>. All you do you're -actually doing as Administrator. Files created as root will be owned by -FOO\Administrator. And the domain user BAR\corinna can now happily -pretend to be Thursday Next, but will wake up sooner or later finding -out she's still actually the domain user BAR\corinna...</para> - -<para>Do I have to mention that you can also rename groups in -<filename>/etc/group</filename>? As long as the SID is present and correct, -all is well. This allows for instance to rename the "Administrators" group -to "root" as well:</para> - -<example id="ntsec-group-tweaked"> -<title>/etc/group, tweaked:</title> -<screen> -root:S-1-5-32-544:544: -</screen> -</example> - -<para>Last but not least you can also change the primary group of a user -in <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>. The only requirement is that the user -is actually a member of the new primary group in Windows. For instance, -normal users in a domain environment are members in the group "Domain Users", -which in turn is member of the well-known group "Users". Additionally let's -assume the user is also a member of the newly created group . The default -primary group for users is - -<!-- TODO: The rest of the file... --> - -</para> - -<para>As you can see, I changed my primary group membership from 513 (None) -to 547 (powerusers). So all files I created inside of Cygwin were now owned -by the powerusers group instead of None. This is the way I liked it.</para> - -<para>Groups may be mentioned in the passwd file, too. This has two -advantages:</para> - -<itemizedlist spacing="compact"> -<listitem><para>Because NT assigns them to files as owners, a -<command>ls -l</command> is often more readable.</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>Moreover it's possible to assigned them to files as -owners with Cygwin's <command>chown</command>.</para></listitem> -</itemizedlist> - -<para>The group `system' is the aforementioned synonym for the operating system -itself and is normally the owner of processes that are started through -service manager. The same is true for files that are created by -processes, which are started through service manager.</para> - -</sect2> - -<sect2 id="ntsec-sids"><title id="ntsec-sids.title">NT SIDs in Cygwin</title> - -<para>This has the following advantages:</para> -<itemizedlist spacing="compact"> -<listitem><para>ntsec works better in domain environments.</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>Accounts (users and groups) may get another name in -Cygwin than their NT account name. The name in <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> -or <filename>/etc/group</filename> is transparently used by Cygwin -applications (e.g. <command>chown</command>, <command>chmod</command>, -<command>ls</command>):</para> - -<screen> -root::500:513::/home/root:/bin/sh -</screen> - -<para>instead of</para> - -<screen> -adminstrator::500:513::/home/root:/bin/sh -</screen> - -<para>Caution: If you like to use the account as login account via -<command>telnet</command> etc. you have to remain the name unchanged or -you have to use the special version of <command>login</command> which is -part of the standard Cygwin distribution since 1.1.</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>Cygwin UIDs and GIDs are now not necessarily the RID -part of the NT SID:</para> - -<screen> -root::0:513:S-1-5-21-54355234-56236534-345635656-500:/home/root:/bin/sh -</screen> - -<para>instead of</para> - -<screen> -root::500:513::/home/root:/bin/sh -</screen> - -</listitem> -<listitem><para>As in U*X systems UIDs and GIDs numbering scheme now -don't influence each other. So it's possible to have same Id's for a -user and a group:</para> -<example id="ntsec-passwd-root"> -<title>/etc/passwd:</title> -<screen> -root::0:0:S-1-5-21-54355234-56236534-345635656-500:/home/root:/bin/sh -</screen> -</example> - -<example id="ntsec-group-root"> -<title>/etc/group:</title> -<screen> -root:S-1-5-32-544:0: -</screen> -</example> -</listitem> -</itemizedlist> - -<para>The tools <command>mkpasswd</command> and <command>mkgroup</command> -create the needed entries by default. If you don't want that you can use -the options <literal>-s</literal> or <literal>--no-sids</literal>. I suggest -not to do this since ntsec works better when having the SIDs available.</para> - -<para>Please note that the pw_gecos field in <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> -is defined as a comma separated list. The SID has to be the last field!</para> - -<screen> -the_king::1:1:Elvis Presley,U-STILLHERE\elvis,S-1-5-21-1234-5678-9012-1000:/bin/sh -</screen> - -<para>For a local user just drop the domain:</para> - -<screen> -the_king::1:1:Elvis Presley,U-elvis,S-1-5-21-1234-5678-9012-1000:/bin/sh -</screen> - -<para>In either case the password of the user is taken from the NT user -database, NOT from the passwd file!</para> - -<para>As in the previous chapter I give my personal -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename> and <filename>/etc/group</filename> as -examples. Please note that I've changed these files heavily! There's no -need to change them that way, it's just for testing purposes and... -for fun.</para> - -<example id="ntsec-passwd-ex-2"> -<title>/etc/passwd</title> -<screen> -root:*:0:0:Administrators group,S-1-5-32-544:: -SYSTEM:*:18:18:,S-1-5-18:/home/system:/bin/bash -admin:*:500:513:,S-1-5-21-1844237615-436374069-1060284298-500:/home/Administrator:/bin/bash -corinna:*:100:0:Corinna Vinschen,S-1-5-21-1844237615-436374069-1060284298-1003:/home/corinna:/bin/tcsh -Guest:*:501:546:,S-1-5-21-1844237615-436374069-1060284298-501:/home/Guest:/bin/bash -</screen> -</example> - -<example id="ntsec-group-ex-2"> -<title>/etc/group</title> -<screen> -root:S-1-5-32-544:0: -local:S-1-2-0:2: -network:S-1-5-2:3: -interactive:S-1-5-4:4: -authenticatedusers:S-1-5-11:5: -SYSTEM:S-1-5-18:18: -local_svc:S-1-5-19:19: -netwrk_svc:S-1-5-20:20: -none:S-1-5-21-1844237615-436374069-1060284298-513:513: -bckup_op:S-1-5-32-551:551: -guests:S-1-5-32-546:546: -pwrusers:S-1-5-32-547:547: -replicator:S-1-5-32-552:552: -users:S-1-5-32-545:545: -</screen> -</example> - -<para>If you want to do similar changes to your files, please do that only -if you're feeling comfortably with the concepts. Otherwise don't be surprised -if some stuff doesn't work anymore. If you screwed up things, revert to files -created by mkpasswd and mkgroup. Especially don't change the UID or the name -of user SYSTEM. Even if that works mostly, some Cygwin applications running -as local service under that account could suddenly start behaving strangely. -</para> - -</sect2> - -<sect2 id="ntsec-mapping"><title id="ntsec-mapping.title">The mapping leak</title> - -<para>Now its time to point out the leak in the NT permissions. -The official documentation explains in short the following:</para> -<itemizedlist spacing="compact"> -<listitem><para>access allow ACEs are accumulated regarding to the -group membership of the caller.</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>The order of ACEs is important. The system reads them -in sequence until either any needed right is denied or all needed rights -are granted. Later ACEs are then not taken into account.</para></listitem> -<listitem><para>All access denied ACEs _should_ precede any -access allowed ACE.</para></listitem> -</itemizedlist> - -<para>Note that the last rule is a preference, not a law. NT will correctly -deal with the ACL regardless of the sequence order. The second rule is -not modified to get the ACEs in the preferred order.</para> - -<para>Unfortunately the security tab of the NT4 explorer is completely -unable to deal with access denied ACEs while the explorer of W2K rearranges -the order of the ACEs before you can read them. Thank God, the sort order -remains unchanged if one presses the Cancel button.</para> - -<para>You still ask "Where is the leak?" NT ACLs are unable to reflect each -possible combination of POSIX permissions. Example:</para> - -<screen> -rw-r-xrw- -</screen> - -<para>1st try:</para> - -<screen> -UserAllow: 110 -GroupAllow: 101 -OthersAllow: 110 -</screen> - -<para>Hmm, because of the accumulation of allow rights the user may -execute because the group may execute.</para> - -<para>2st try:</para> - -<screen> -UserDeny: 001 -GroupAllow: 101 -OthersAllow: 110 -</screen> - -<para>Now the user may read and write but not execute. Better? No! -Unfortunately the group may write now because others may write.</para> - -<para>3rd try:</para> - -<screen> -UserDeny: 001 -GroupDeny: 010 -GroupAllow: 001 -OthersAllow: 110 -</screen> - -<para>Now the group may not write as intended but unfortunately the user may -not write anymore, either. How should this problem be solved? According to -the official rules a UserAllow has to follow the GroupDeny but it's -easy to see that this can never be solved that way.</para> - -<para>The only chance:</para> - -<screen> -UserDeny: 001 -UserAllow: 010 -GroupDeny: 010 -GroupAllow: 001 -OthersAllow: 110 -</screen> - -<para>Again: This works for both, NT4 and W2K. Only the GUIs aren't -able to deal with that order.</para> - -</sect2> - -<sect2 id="ntsec-aclfuncs"><title id="ntsec-aclfuncs.title">The ACL API</title> - -<para>For dealing with ACLs Cygwin now has the ACL API as it's -implemented in newer versions of Solaris. The new data structure -for a single ACL entry (ACE in NT terminology) is defined in -<filename>sys/acl.h</filename> as:</para> - -<screen> -typedef struct acl { - int a_type; /* entry type */ - uid_t a_id; /* UID | GID */ - mode_t a_perm; /* permissions */ -} aclent_t; -</screen> - -<para>The a_perm member of the aclent_t type contains only the bits -for read, write and execute as in the file mode. If e.g. read permission -is granted, all read bits (S_IRUSR, S_IRGRP, S_IROTH) are set. -CLASS_OBJ or MASK ACL entries are not fully implemented yet.</para> - -<para>The new API calls are</para> - -<screen> -acl(2), facl(2) -aclcheck(3), -aclsort(3), -acltomode(3), aclfrommode(3), -acltopbits(3), aclfrompbits(3), -acltotext(3), aclfromtext(3) -</screen> - -<para>Like in Solaris, Cygwin has two new commands for working with -ACLs on the command line: <command>getfacl</command> and -<command>setfacl</command>.</para> - -<para>Online man pages for the aforementioned commands and API calls can be -found on <ulink url="http://docs.sun.com">http://docs.sun.com</ulink> </para> - -</sect2> - -<sect2 id="ntsec-setuid"><title id="ntsec-setuid.title">New setuid concept</title> - -<para>POSIX applications which have to switch the user context are using -the <command>setuid</command> and <command>seteuid</command> calls which -are not part of the Windows API. -Nevertheless these calls are supported under Windows NT/W2K since Cygwin -release 1.1.3. Because of the nature of NT security an application which -needs the ability has to be patched, though.</para> - -<para>NT uses so-called `access tokens' to identify a user and it's -permissions. To switch the user context the application has to request -such an `access token'. This is typically done by calling the NT API -function <command>LogonUser</command>. The access token is returned and -either used in <command>ImpersonateLoggedOnUser</command> to change user -context of the current process or in <command>CreateProcessAsUser</command> -to change user context of a spawned child process. An important restriction -is that the application using <command>LogonUser</command> must have special -permissions:</para> - -<screen> -"Act as part of the operating system" -"Replace process level token" -"Increase quotas" -</screen> - -<para>Note that administrators do not have all these user rights set -by default.</para> - -<para>Two new Cygwin calls are introduced to support porting -<command>setuid</command> applications with a minimum of effort. You only -give Cygwin the right access token and then you can call -<command>seteuid</command> or <command>setuid</command> as usual in POSIX -applications. The call to <command>sexec</command> is not needed -anymore. Porting a <command>setuid</command> application is illustrated by -a short example:</para> - -<screen> -<![CDATA[ -/* First include all needed cygwin stuff. */ -#ifdef __CYGWIN__ -#include <windows.h> -#include <sys/cygwin.h> -/* Use the following define to determine the Windows version */ -#define is_winnt (GetVersion() < 0x80000000) -#endif - -[...] - - struct passwd *user_pwd_entry = getpwnam (username); - char *cleartext_password = getpass ("Password:"); - -[...] - -#ifdef __CYGWIN__ - /* Patch the typical password test. */ - if (is_winnt) - { - HANDLE token; - - /* Try to get the access token from NT. */ - token = cygwin_logon_user (user_pwd_entry, cleartext_password); - if (token == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) - error_exit; - /* Inform Cygwin about the new impersonation token. - Cygwin is able now, to switch to that user context by - setuid or seteuid calls. */ - cygwin_set_impersonation_token (token); - } - else -#endif /* CYGWIN */ - /* Use standard method for W9X as well. */ - hashed_password = crypt (cleartext_password, salt); - if (!user_pwd_entry || - strcmp (hashed_password, user_pwd_entry->pw_password)) - error_exit; - -[...] - - /* Everything else remains the same! */ - - setegid (user_pwd_entry->pw_gid); - seteuid (user_pwd_entry->pw_uid); - execl ("/bin/sh", ...); -]]> - -</screen> - -<para>The new Cygwin call to retrieve an access token is defined as follows:</para> - -<screen> -#include <windows.h> -#include <sys/cygwin.h> - -HANDLE -cygwin_logon_user (struct passwd *pw, const char *cleartext_password) -</screen> - -<para>You can call that function as often as you want for different user -logons and remember the access tokens for further calls to the second function.</para> - -<screen> -#include <windows.h> -#include <sys/cygwin.h> - -void -cygwin_set_impersonation_token (HANDLE hToken); -</screen> - -<para> is the call to inform Cygwin about the user context to which further -calls to <command>setuid</command>/<command>seteuid</command> should switch to. -While you always need the correct access token to do a -<command>setuid</command>/<command>seteuid</command> to another user's context, -you are always able to use <command>setuid</command>/<command>seteuid</command> -to return to your own user context by giving your own uid as parameter.</para> - -<para>If you have remembered several access tokens from calls to -<command>cygwin_logon_user</command> you can switch to different user -contexts by observing the following order:</para> - -<screen> - - cygwin_set_impersonation_token (user1_token); - seteuid (user1_uid); - -[...] - - seteuid (own_uid); - cygwin_set_impersonation_token (user2_token); - seteuid (user2_uid); - -[...] - - seteuid (own_uid); - cygwin_set_impersonation_token (user1_token); - seteuid (user1_uid); - -etc. - -</screen> - -</sect2> - -<sect2 id="ntsec-switch"><title id="ntsec-switch.title">Switching User -Context</title> - -<para> -Since Cygwin release 1.3.3, applications that are members of the -Administrators group and have the <command>Create a token -object</command>, <command>Replace a process level token</command> and -<command>Increase Quota</command> user rights can switch user -context without giving a password by just calling the usual -<command>setuid</command>, <command>seteuid</command>, -<command>setgid</command> and <command>setegid</command> functions. -</para> -<para> -On NT and Windows 2000 the <systemitem -class="username">SYSTEM</systemitem> user has these privileges and can -run services such as <command>sshd</command>. However, on Windows 2003 -<systemitem class="username">SYSTEM</systemitem> lacks the -<command>Create a token object</command> right, so it is necessary to -create a special user with all the necessary rights, as -well as <command>Logon as a service</command>, to run such services. -For security reasons this user should be denied the rights to logon -interactively or over the network. All this is done by configuration -scripts such as <command>ssh-host-config</command>. -</para> -<para> -An important restriction of this method is that a process started -without a password cannot access network shares which require -authentication. This also applies to subprocesses which switched user -context without a password. Therefore, when using -<command>ssh</command> or <command>rsh</command> without a password, it -is typically not possible to access network drives. -</para> - -</sect2> - -<sect2 id="ntsec-ids"><title id="ntsec-ids.title">Special values of user and group -ids</title> - -<para> -If the current user is not present in <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>, -that user's user id is set to a special value of 400. The user name for -the current user will always be shown correctly. If another user -(or a Windows group, treated as a user) is not present in -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename>, the user id of that user will have a -special value of -1 (which would be shown by <command>ls</command> as -65535). The user name shown in this case will be '????????'. -</para> - -<para> -If the current user is not present in <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>, -that user's login group id is set to a special value of 401. If another -user is not present in <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>, that user's login -group id is set to a special value of -1. If the user is present in -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename>, but that user's group is not in -<filename>/etc/group</filename> and is not the login group of that user, -the group id is set to a special value of -1. The name of this group -(id -1) will be shown as '????????'. -In releases of Cygwin before 1.3.20, the group id 401 had a group name -'None'. Since Cygwin release 1.3.20, the group id 401 is shown as -'mkpasswd', indicating the command that should be run to alleviate the -situation. -</para> - -<para> -Also, since Cygwin release 1.3.20, if the current user is present in -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename>, but that user's login group is not -present in <filename>/etc/group</filename>, the group name will be shown -as 'mkgroup', again indicating the appropriate command. -</para> - -<para>To summarize:</para> -<itemizedlist spacing="compact"> - -<listitem><para>If the current user doesn't show up in -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename>, it's <emphasis>group</emphasis> will -be named 'mkpasswd'.</para></listitem> - -<listitem><para>Otherwise, if the login group of the current user isn't -in <filename>/etc/group</filename>, it will be named 'mkgroup'.</para> -</listitem> - -<listitem><para>Otherwise a group not in <filename>/etc/group</filename> -will be shown as '????????' and a user not in -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename> will be shown as "????????".</para> -</listitem> - -</itemizedlist> - -<para> -Note that, since the special user and group names are just indicators, -nothing prevents you from actually having a user named `mkpasswd' in -<filename>/etc/passwd</filename> (or a group named `mkgroup' in -<filename>/etc/group</filename>). If you do that, however, be aware of -the possible confusion. -</para> - -</sect2> - -</sect1> |