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Full Discussion: 'shutdown' and 'cat'
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers 'shutdown' and 'cat' Post 302261482 by scottsiddharth on Monday 24th of November 2008 11:51:31 PM
Old 11-25-2008
Power 'shutdown' and 'cat'

Hi All,

This is actually a good interview question.

On linux, the permissions and group for 'shutdown' and 'cat' is the same.

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 18K 2008-05-21 10:43 shutdown
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 17K 2007-01-30 19:51 cat

Then why is it that a normal user cannot run the 'shutdown' command ?

I've done some searching and I think it has something to do with SUID.
The 'shutdown' command calls the seteuid(0) where as the 'cat' command does not.

Is this correct ? Could someone please verify? Also is there a list of commands which can only be run by su even though the permissions are the same? I mean how can we know?
Thanks.

Last edited by scottsiddharth; 11-25-2008 at 01:00 AM..
 

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halt(8) 						      System Manager's Manual							   halt(8)

NAME
halt - Stops the processor SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/halt [-d] [-l] [-n] [-q] [-y] DESCRIPTION
If other users are logged into the system, or if the system is operating at a multiuser run level, use the /usr/sbin/shutdown -h command to halt the system. If only the root user is logged in, and you do not plan to restart the system immediately, use the halt command. The halt command writes data to the disks and then stops the processor(s), but does not reboot the machine. You must be the root user to run this command. When the system displays the ....Halt completed.... message, you can turn off power to the machine. If the command is invoked without the -l, -n, or -q flag, the halt program logs the shutdown using the syslogd command and places a record of the shutdown in the login accounting file, /var/adm/wtmp. Using the -q and the -n flags imply the -l flag. FLAGS
Generates a crash dump of the system before halting it. Can be used with any other flag. Does not log the halt using syslog Prevents the sync before stopping, and does not log the halt using syslog Causes a quick halt, does not log the halt using syslog, and makes no attempt to kill all processes Halts the system from a dial-up operation EXAMPLES
To halt the system without logging the shutdown in the log file, enter: halt -l To halt the system quickly, enter: halt -q To halt the sys- tem quickly, also leaving a crash dump for the savecore command, enter: halt -d -q To halt the system from a dial-up, enter: halt -y FILES
Specifies the command path Specifies the syslog daemon Specifies the login accounting file RELATED INFORMATION
Commands: fasthalt(8), reboot(8), savecore(8), shutdown(8), syslogd(8) Functions: reboot(2), sync(2), syslog(3) delim off halt(8)
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