freebsd-skq/share/man/man9/suser.9
keramida 955080c0be Consistently use `superuser privileges' instead of its singular
form here and its plural there.

Submitted by:	Rostislav Krasny <rosti.bsd@gmail.com>
MFC after: 	3 days
2006-05-16 22:58:43 +00:00

134 lines
4.1 KiB
Groff

.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1996 Julian R Elischer
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed by Kenneth Stailey.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
.\" This product includes software developed for the FreeBSD Project
.\" by Julian R Elischer
.\" 4. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
.\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
.\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
.\" BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
.\" LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED
.\" AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
.\" OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd April 2, 2002
.Dt SUSER 9
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm suser ,
.Nm suser_cred
.Nd check if credentials have superuser privileges
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In sys/param.h
.In sys/systm.h
.Ft int
.Fn suser "struct thread *td"
.Ft int
.Fn suser_cred "struct ucred *cred" "int flag"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn suser
and
.Fn suser_cred
functions check if the credentials given include superuser powers.
.Pp
The
.Fn suser
function is the most common, and should be used unless special
circumstances dictate otherwise.
.Pp
The
.Fn suser_cred
function should be used when the credentials to be checked are
not the thread's own, when there is no thread, when superuser
powers should be extended to imprisoned roots, or when the credential
to be checked is the real user rather than the effective user.
.Pp
By default, a process does not command superuser powers if it has
been imprisoned by the
.Xr jail 2
system call.
There are cases however where this is appropriate, and this can
be done by passing
.Dv SUSER_ALLOWJAIL
in the
.Fa flag
argument to the
.Fn suser_cred
function.
It is important to review carefully in each case that
this does not weaken the prison.
Generally, only where the action is protected by
.Xr chroot 2
implicit in the
.Xr jail 2
call should such powers be granted.
.Pp
By default, the credential checked is the effective user.
There are cases
where it is instead necessary to check the real user (for example, when
determining if resource limits should be applied), and this can be done
by passing the
.Dv SUSER_RUID
flag in the
.Fa flag
argument to the
.Fn suser_cred
function.
.Pp
The
.Fn suser
and
.Fn suser_cred
functions note the fact that superuser powers have been used in the
process structure of the process specified.
Because part of their function is to notice
whether superuser powers have been used,
the functions should only be called after other permission
possibilities have been exhausted.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn suser
and
.Fn suser_cred
functions return 0 if the user has superuser powers and
.Er EPERM
otherwise.
This is the
.Em reverse logic
of some other implementations of
.Fn suser
in which a TRUE response indicates superuser powers.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chroot 2 ,
.Xr jail 2
.Sh BUGS
The
.Fn suser
and
.Fn suser_cred
functions do not, in fact, record that superuser privileges have been
used, and have not done so since August 2000.