RFC: Adding a ``user'' mount option

[Joe Marcus Clarke]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Colin Percival wrote:
> Joe Marcus Clarke wrote:
>> I know we have vfs.usermount, but this is not always sufficient since
>> the user has to own the mount point in question.  What I propose is to
>> add a ``user'' mount option à la Linux.  This would make mount and
>> umount setuid root, but would allow much more flexibility when it comes
>> to removable media and desktop systems.
> 
> If I understand the patch correctly, you're proposing that some filesystems
> be marked as "this can be mounted or unmounted by non-root users".  If this
> is correct, it seems to me that a more appropriate solution is to add an
> /etc/usermount.conf file and a new setuid utility usermount(8) which would
> look at the invoking user and the filesystem requested and either pass the
> request to mount(8) or reject it.

As others have pointed out, the way mounting works now is fine for most
advanced users (it's fine for me, as I wrote the FAQ for GNOME).
However, for newer users, they don't get that removable media mounting
doesn't work out-of-the-box.

Other operating systems don't have this extra complexity.  For example,
Linux uses the user mount notation.  Solaris has volume management such
that media like CDs are auto-mounted, and instantly made available to users.

> 
> Generally speaking it's much better to add a new setuid program which does
> exactly what you need, rather than making an existing and possibly insecure
> program setuid.

What I'd like to achieve is a simple out-of-the-box way of mounting
media such as CDs, and floppy disks without users necessarily needing to
know about sysctl.  While I can't speak for KDE, I know GNOME already
has the ability to detect user-mountable media, and gives the users
icons on the desktop to mount said volumes.

I was hoping we could make this solution secure and flexible without the
need for another utility.

Joe


- --
Joe Marcus Clarke
FreeBSD GNOME Team	::	gnome at FreeBSD.org
FreeNode / #freebsd-gnome
http://www.FreeBSD.org/gnome
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (Darwin)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD4DBQFEMWOHb2iPiv4Uz4cRAu8uAJjr8GMUcLMmf764FVtfdq/ZAkSbAJ9qLVxK
mtV+SNR6h+/YDjCD8mKA5Q==
=rc6p
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----