Preventing password changes on Econet L3 Fileserver

[marrold]

Hi all,

I've previously read that one way people setup their L3 File Sever is to have a user called GAMES and potentially have a !BOOT file that loads a menu to chose from.

In this kind of scenario with a shared user I was wondering if it was possible to prevent someone from changing the password? Having flicked through the manuals it doesn't appear like this was a feature but I could be wrong.

Thanks
Matthew

[arg]

There was such a feature on SJ fileservers.

[flaxcottage]

The way we prevented people changing a password for a default logon was to create a file !BOOT in the root directory and set *OPT4,3

!BOOT contained the commands needed to run the menu program. The menu program and all sub-programs would have to have their access set as *ACCESS <filename> r/r

Also the command *FX200,3 should be set in the !BOOT file. That way BREAK or CTRL-BREAK would clear memory and cancel any public logon to the network

[SteveF]

That sounds pretty tight. Would it be possible to hammer the Escape key after logging on to intercept the !BOOT file before it got properly executed? (I've never used Econet, I'm just curious... the latent schoolboy hacker in me coming out, perhaps! )

[sweh]

Yes, ESCAPE can interrupt things... I'm guessing a *RUN might be better.

(This with NFS360)

[SteveF]

Thanks, that's oddly gratifying!

[dangardner]

It was a feature on the Filestore too, with

Code: Select all

*PRIV <user> L

to lock the user account. I just spent a happy hour digging into the Acorn Fileserver sources at https://github.com/stardot/Acorn-Fileservers but I couldn't see where that feature was implemented. I was expecting it to be part of AUTMAN, in ATSTPW, but I couldn't find it.

[jgharston]

OSCLI "I AM GAMES":*EXEC

[james]

It was a feature on the Filestore too, with

Code: Select all

*PRIV <user> L

to lock the user account.

Where did you find this documented?

A search around the internet finds "Level 3 File Server manager's guide" from a pre-Filestore 1985 and Filestore Service Manuals and Application Notes, bu I can't find "*PRIV [user] L" (unless with Level 4).

Is there a FileStore user/manager guide?

[KenLowe]

Doesn't help with L3, but if using PiEconetBridge:

Code: Select all

*PRIV <user> <priv>
	- Set user privilege. Applicable privileges are:
		D - Deleted - user cannot log in, password entry will be reused
		L - Locked user - cannot log in
		N - Unlocked (normal) user, but cannot change password
		S - System user
		U - Unlocked (normal) user

[james]

Thanks Ken

Just did some more searching and found https://heyrick.eu/econet/fs/descript.html which mentions the FileStore supporting “*Priv <user name> [ S or L or nothing]”.

And “*PRIV <username> [ S or L or or F none]” on L4 at https://heyrick.eu/econet/othersrv/level4.html

But I’m still curious about the original document - if there is such a thing!

[dangardner]

But I’m still curious about the original document - if there is such a thing!

It's documented on page 24 of the Communicator FileStore Manager's Guide at https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.or ... sGuide.pdf.

[james]

Ta muchly!

[marrold]

The way we prevented people changing a password for a default logon was to create a file !BOOT in the root directory and set *OPT4,3

!BOOT contained the commands needed to run the menu program. The menu program and all sub-programs would have to have their access set as *ACCESS <filename> r/r

Also the command *FX200,3 should be set in the !BOOT file. That way BREAK or CTRL-BREAK would clear memory and cancel any public logon to the network

Great, this should work. I can probably don't need to worry about ESCAPE being hammered.

[jgharston]

I'm sure there's documentation of the L3FS password file format and NetFS_Op 24 (Read User Info) that says something like:
status: b7=system b6=locked b2-b0=opt4