Admin can access all files in nonadmin user cygwin file tree

Admin can access all files in nonadmin user cygwin file tree

[andy]

When I open a mintty terminal as administrator, I am able to access all the
files in the file tree rooted at ~nonAdminUserAccount, even though that
directory & all subdirectories have mode bits drwx------+.  Is this to be
expected?  I'm using Windows 7 and "cygcheck -cd" shows version 2.2.1-1 for
the cygwin entry.


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Re: Admin can access all files in nonadmin user cygwin file tree

[Erik Soderquist]

On Sun, Apr 17, 2016 at 11:11 PM, andy wrote:
> When I open a mintty terminal as administrator, I am able to access all the
> files in the file tree rooted at ~nonAdminUserAccount, even though that
> directory & all subdirectories have mode bits drwx------+.  Is this to be
> expected?  I'm using Windows 7 and "cygcheck -cd" shows version 2.2.1-1 for
> the cygwin entry.

As administrator is the Windows counterpart to root, yes, I would
expect this behavior when starting a mintty session as administrator

-- Erik

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Re: Admin can access all files in nonadmin user cygwin file tree

[andy]

Erik Soderquist <ErikSoderquist <at> gmail.com> writes:
> As administrator is the Windows counterpart to root, yes, I would
> expect this behavior when starting a mintty session as administrator

OK.  I wasn't sure because, depending on what machine I'm using,
Windows 7 sometimes doesn't allow administrator to access other users'
accounts.  Thanks.


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Re: Admin can access all files in nonadmin user cygwin file tree

[Corinna Vinschen]

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On Apr 19 02:31, andy wrote:
> Erik Soderquist <ErikSoderquist <at> gmail.com> writes:
> > As administrator is the Windows counterpart to root, yes, I would
> > expect this behavior when starting a mintty session as administrator
> 
> OK.  I wasn't sure because, depending on what machine I'm using,
> Windows 7 sometimes doesn't allow administrator to access other users'
> accounts.  Thanks.

On Windows it's not sufficient to be admin to have all admin access.
Applications have to request certain privileges explicitely and many
native tools on Windows just don't do that, so they fail.  The Cygwin
DLL requests these privilieges for Cygwin executables under the hood.


Corinna

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Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Maintainer                 cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat

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Re: Admin can access all files in nonadmin user cygwin file tree

[andy]

Corinna Vinschen <corinna-cygwin <at> cygwin.com> writes:
> On Windows it's not sufficient to be admin to have all admin access.
> Applications have to request certain privileges explicitely and many
> native tools on Windows just don't do that, so they fail.  The
> Cygwin DLL requests these privilieges for Cygwin executables under
> the hood.

Thank you, Corinna.  It's reassuring that this is known and
designed-for behaviour.

Having said that, I just contrast the above earnest use of the term
"designed-for" with the abuse of that term by another juggernaut of a
software company that always refers to its architectural or functional
gobsmacks as behaviour that is "by design".  What they mean is that
the designers goofed, and the resulting design is....well, it is what
you get.  I marvel at the desparation in such an attempt at spin
doctoring.

And just to be clear, I'm *contrasting* that with cygwin's mindful
design.  So no flames, please.


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