On Mon, 24 Aug 1998, Dr. Bill Studenmund wrote:

> On 21 Aug 1998, Naoki Kobayashi wrote:
> 
> >  When I log in as root,no problem to /etc/ppp/ppp-up & /etc/ppp/ppp-down.
> > But when I log in as other user's name,I can't /etc/ppp/ppp-up 
> > and /etc/ppp/ppp-down.
> >  What should I do to fix?
> 
> It won't work. The kernel really doesn't like non-root users running pppd.
> Either always su to root, or look into the sudo program. It lets users do
> certain tasks as if they were root, without needing the root password.

I do it routinely, on both the mac68k and i386 boxes. The trick is to
split the options in either /etc/ppp/options, or in /etc/ppp/peers/ISP,
e.g., then type "pppd call ISP", or script it. Do a search of the pppd man
page for the word "privileged" to see which options can't be set on the
command line. Most of the important ones, actually.

It's also possible to compile a kernel with "options SETUIDSCRIPTS." This
is no more insecure, inherently, than allowing users to write their own
programs, and then run them suid. There are, no doubt, admininstrators who
would take issue with that assertion. I do that on my home box, anyway,
but scripts that call pppd don't need it. I do use a suid script to bring
ppp down, only to cover the case that it was brought it up as root.