Re: LYNX-DEV . and .. showing in dired

[David Woolley]

> from the beginning of June, I noticed that I could see '.' and '..'.  I didn't
> see any real problem with this at first, but recently some users have been
> going into their directory and hitting 'r' on '.' or '..' and have been
> removing their home directory without knowing it until they try to login next.
> Is there a way to change this?

Yes.  Fix the major security problem in your system.

Assuming this is Unix, no user, except root, or possibly bin, should
have write permission in the parent of their home directory, and without
that permission, it is impossible (barring another security hole) for
them to remove their home directory; with it, it is almost certainly
possible (give or take a sticky bit) to do much much worse.


I don't remember the exact security model for VMS, but I can't imagine
a proper VMS configuration allowing users to remove their own home
directory, either.
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