2005/05/22 msec (Mandrake Security Tools)

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/doc/82/en/ref.html/prog-msec.html

"msec" is a Mandrake tool that sets and enforces certain security settings. In addition to setting initial configuration and permissions for various files, it runs periodic cron jobs that check current conditions and that will even correct conditions that change. It's that correction feature that causes regular newgroup postings along the lines of "Help - permissions keep changing on my files": at its higher levels, msec isn't going to let you keep permissions it doesn't approve of.

Of course it's possible to change its behaviour. You can create a "/etc/security/msec/perm.local" that overrides the default permissions. Similar overrides can be made for msec's other checks.

I'm of mixed mind about all encompassing tools like this. On the one hand, it can add a large dose of security to a system. But just as it can interfere with a user trying to set too loose permissions, it could also interfere with deliberate security efforts - in other words, it might accidentally undo or interfere with some other effort made to increase security. If you are going to use thgis as part of your security configuration, I'd say you need to become intimately familiar with it and carefully check that its scripts don't affect your other efforts.

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