{"id":13329,"date":"2021-12-09T20:40:06","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T01:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/?page_id=13329"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:59:23","slug":"tr-10-10-a-control-point-for-reducing-root-abuse-of-file-system-privileges","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/research\/scs-technical-reports\/technical-reports-2010\/tr-10-10-a-control-point-for-reducing-root-abuse-of-file-system-privileges\/","title":{"rendered":"TR-10-10: A Control Point for Reducing Root Abuse of File-System Privileges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        TR-10-10: A Control Point for Reducing Root Abuse of File-System Privileges\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Carleton University<br>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/research\/scs-technical-reports\/technical-reports-2010\/\">Technical Report<\/a> TR-10-10<br>\nApril 10, 2010<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"a-control-point-for-reducing-root-abuse-of-file-system-privileges\" class=\"wp-block-heading tr_t1\">A Control Point for Reducing Root Abuse of File-System Privileges<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">\n<div class=\"tr_t3\">Glenn Wurster &amp; Paul C. van Oorschot<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Abstract<\/h3>\n<p>We address the problem of restricting root&#8217;s ability to change arbitrary files on disk, in order to prevent abuse on most current desktop operating systems. The approach first involves recognizing and separating out the ability to configure a system from the ability to use the system to perform tasks. The permission to modify configuration of the system is then further subdivided in order to restrict applications from modifying the file-system objects of other applications. We explore the division of root&#8217;s current ability to change arbitrary files on disk and discuss a prototype that proves out the viability of the approach. Our architecture exposes a control point available for use to enforce policies that prevent one application from modifying another&#8217;s file-system objects.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/260\/TR-10-10.pdf\">TR-10-10.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carleton University Technical Report TR-10-10 April 10, 2010 A Control Point for Reducing Root Abuse of File-System Privileges Glenn Wurster &amp; Paul C. van Oorschot Abstract We address the problem of restricting root&#8217;s ability to change arbitrary files on disk, in order to prevent abuse on most current desktop operating systems. The approach first involves [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":12468,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[],"class_list":["post-13329","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13330,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13329\/revisions\/13330"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/scs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=13329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}