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version 1.1.4.1, 2006/12/22 00:21:40

version 1.1.4.2, 2007/03/23 21:53:41

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Using Pegasus Privilege Separation Functionality

Privilege separation was added to Pegasus starting with Pegasus 2.7. This

is a security feature. It allows separation of the functionality so that

only a minimal set of code runs as a privileged user (ex. root) in a

separate process (the executor). The majority of pegasus runs as a

nonprivileged user (the cim server). The CIM Server makes requests on the

executor for functions that require root privilege.

The privilege separation functionality is documented in PEP 286.

cimserver is the executor program (see src/Executor)

cimservermain is the server program (see src/Server and src/Pegasus/ExecutorClient)

Privilege separation is build-time optional functionality. To enable privilege

separation, define the following environment variable before compiling.

PEGASUS_ENABLE_PRIVILEGE_SEPARATION=true

If this build variable is not set, the cimserver runs as the user under which

it was started and all privelege separation functionality is disabled.

The nonprivileged user for privilege separation is the user under which the

cimservermain component executes.

Upon startup the cimserver uses the config parameter "serverUser" to determine

this user name.

This user name is defined as follows:

1. optional serverUser=<user name> on the cimserver commandline

2. optional value of serverUser config parameter

3. default of "pegasus" if the the config parameter is not found in the

commandline or planned config file.

The defined user MUST exist or cimserver will terminate immediatly.

12/30/2006

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