Re: I need to lock certain user profiles MC abilities.

[Pavel Roskin <proski gnu org>]

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Tech 1 wrote:

>   My question has probablly been answered before, but I cannot find any
> docs to support it.  I am currently running FreeBSD and I use MC
> religiously!  My problem, is, when a user cannot see files while in CLI,
> they can open MC and are able to see the hidden files in the directory.

Midnight Commander doesn't give you any additional abilities.  Whatever
can be seen in mc can be seen by other programs.

> Of course they cannot access them, but I would prefer they were not able
> to see them. I've tried editing the configuration file in each home
> directory and also have changed the permissions on the configuration
> files, but no change.  Basically, the user can go into their options and
> change the show hidden files option and BAM, there they are. Is there a
> way to accomplish this?

It's unclear why it's a problem.  If users want to see some files, they
will enable that option.  If they don't need those files, they won't
change that option.

If you want to base your security (that includes privacy of other users)
on inability to see some files, you cannot do it in the software that is
run by users.  If you don't understand it, you need to read some
literature about security.

If you have some other goals (e.g. treating users like idiots), you should
be more open about it.  If you cannot, talk to people you trust instead of
posting to public mailing lists.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin