vfs.usermount and directory owner

[Lowell Gilbert]

Emanuel Strobl <Emanuel.strobl at gmx.net> writes:

> I want to be able to access my cd drive as normal user. As any user, not a 
> specific one. So it's a problem that I can't mount it to a general 
> directory like /cdrom since only one user can be owner and it looks like 
> it's required that the mountpoint belongs to the user, even with 
> vfs.usermount=1 set.

Yes.

> I can't see any security reason for that. If I decide to let users mount 
> something (with vfs.usermount) why is there an extra check regarding the 
> owner of the mountpoint?

So they can control access to the filesystem.

> Is there another sysctl which disables that prerequisite or at least shifts 
> the check to group instead of user id?

No.  

The normal approaches are to either use mount points in users' home
directories, or to use fbtab(5) to change ownership of common mount
points.  Is there some reason these won't work for you?

-- 
Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area
		http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/