STeve Andre' [andres@msu.edu] wrote:
quoted text
> I think that is a fundamentally flawed assumption.  Root can do
> *ANYTHING*.  Anything at all.  Sure, preventing crashes is good,
> but you can't get around the fact that root is omniscient.
> 

Had this 'root' been *omniscient*, the incident wouldn't have
happened. You probably meant to say that root is, in fact *omnipotent* !

p

quoted text
> On Sunday 25 July 2010 19:16:05 bofh wrote:
> > Ok, when I first learnt how to use unix nearly 20 years ago, one of
> > the things I learnt was that a privileged user can break shit, but
> > should not cause kernels to hang or crash.  That would be considered a
> > bug.  Only DOS and windows 3.1 do that :)
> >
> > On 7/25/10, STeve Andre' <andres@msu.edu> wrote:
> > > On Sunday 25 July 2010 18:40:19 frantisek holop wrote:
> > >> hmm, on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 12:12:32AM +0200, David Vasek said that
> > >>
> > >> > It is not what happened. The -t msdos was forced by you. But you
> > >>
> > >> ah shit.  you are right :]
> > >>
> > >> and it worked because ffs does not overwrite the beginning
> > >> of the partition.
> > >>
> > >> i misinterpreted what happened,
> > >> but this is still a problem, right? :]
> > >>
> > >> -f
> > >
> > > It's a "problem" in that something bad happened, but that is because
> > > of an operator error.  In particular a root operator error: being root
> > > has the potential for unlimited error.  There is no fix or check for
> > > "rm -rf /", is there.
> > >
> > > I've not looked at the code so I can't intelligently comment on what
> > > checks you can or cannot do, but the fundamental issue is that root
> > > has to be aware of every command entered, and must be prepared
> > > to fix *anything*.  An OS cannot prevent you from most problems.
> > > Well, Windows tries, but look at what it feel like to use it...
> 
> 
> -- 
> STeve Andre'
> Disease Control Warden
> Dept. of Political Science
> Michigan State University
> 
> A day without Windows is like a day without a nuclear incident.
> 

-- 
I'm a VIP at my local liquor store and I'm root. Fear me !
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