In message <20030908201150.O1404@snowdrop.l8s.co.uk>, David Laight writes:

>
>This is bogus, inetd wouldn't have to be root if these programs didn't
>need root privileges.
>

No.  Inetd is root to bind to low port numbers (that's a separate 
flame) and to be able to run different applications as different (often 
non-root) users.


		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb