
In addition, there are three types of access permissions: read, write, and execute. On many systems, audio recording and playback can be done simply with the commands, " cat /dev/audio > myfile" and " cat myfile > /dev/audio," respectively.Įvery file on a GNU/Linux system is owned by a user and a group. A simple tool, such as cat, designed to read one or more files and output the contents to standard output, can be used to read from I/O devices through special device files, typically found under the /dev directory. This enables new uses for, and greatly increases the power of, existing applications - simple tools designed with specific uses in mind can, with UNIX file abstractions, be used in novel ways. Many OS services and device interfaces are implemented to provide a file or file system metaphor to applications. The trick is to provide a common abstraction for all of these resources, each of which the UNIX fathers called a "file." Since every "file" is exposed through the same API, you can use the same set of basic commands to read/write to a disk, keyboard, document or network device.įrom Extending UNIX File Abstraction for General-Purpose Networking:Ī fundamental and very powerful, consistent abstraction provided in UNIX and compatible operating systems is the file abstraction. This key design principle consists of providing a unified paradigm for accessing a wide range of input/output resources: documents, directories, hard-drives, CD-ROMs, modems, keyboards, printers, monitors, terminals and even some inter-process and network communications. One of the most important of these is probably the mantra: "everything is a file," widely regarded as one of the defining points of UNIX. The UNIX operating system crystallizes a couple of unifying ideas and concepts that shaped its design, user interface, culture and evolution. Note: The beginner should use these tools carefully and stay away from having anything to do with any other existing user account, other than their own. Users may be grouped together into a "group", and users may be added to an existing group to utilize the privileged access it grants. Further, there are some reserved names which may not be used such as "root". Unprivileged users can use several programs for controlled privilege elevation.Īny individual may have more than one account as long as they use a different name for each account they create. The superuser (root) has complete access to the operating system and its configuration it is intended for administrative use only. Managing users is done for the purpose of security by limiting access in certain specific ways. Some system services also run using restricted or privileged user accounts. All that matters is that the computer has a name for each account it creates, and it is this name by which a person gains access to use the computer. It may be Mary or Bill, and they may use the names Dragonlady or Pirate in place of their real name. In this case, we are describing the names which represent those users.

For more advanced options, see ACL, Capabilities and PAM#Configuration How-Tos.Ī user is anyone who uses a computer.

Linux offers relatively simple/coarse access control mechanisms by default.
#ARCH LINUX SAMBA UPDATE#
Update the affected package samba to version 4.10.10-1. Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may allow an attacker to overwrite arbitrary files on the client. A malicious SMB server can return a filename to the client containing directory traversal characters and force the client to read or write data to local files.
#ARCH LINUX SAMBA CODE#
The vulnerability exists due to input validation error when processing directory traversal sequences in filenames within Samba client code (libsmbclient). The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform directory traversal attacks. CWE-ID: CWE-22 - Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
