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Network Information Services (NIS and NIS+) Guide


NIS+ Security and Administrative Rights

NIS+ does not enforce any requirement that there be a single NIS+ administrator. Whoever has administrative rights over an object--that is, the authority to create, destroy, and for some objects, modify rights--is considered to be an NIS+ administrator for that object.

Whoever creates an NIS+ object sets the initial access rights to that object. If the creator restricts administrative rights to the object's owner (initially the creator), then only the owner has administrative power over that object. On the other hand, if the creator grants administrative rights to the object's group, then everyone in that group has administrative power over that object.

Theoretically, you could grant administrative rights to the world class, or even the nobody class. The software allows you to do that. But granting administrative rights beyond the group class effectively nullifies NIS+ security. Thus, if you grant administrative rights to either the World or the nobody class you are, in effect, defeating the purpose of NIS+ security.


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