This action looks like it's caused by a PAM module that isn't shipped with SuSE linux (pam_console). We have found that it is useful but it also brings along some problems (also security related) that aren't easy to come by.
so i obviously have /lib/security/pam_console.so and it is mentioned in a couple of files in /etc/pam.d. [nathaniel: check this out - it makes sense...] <snip from man pam_console> When a user logs in at the console and no other user is currently logged in at the console, pam_console.so will change permissions and ownership of files as described in the file /etc/security/console.perms. That user may then log in on other terminals that are considered part of the console, and as long as the user is still logged in at any one of those terminals, that user will own those devices. When the user logs out of the last terminal, the console may be taken by the next user to log in. Other users who have logged in at the console during the time that the first user was logged in will not be given ownership of the devices unless they log in on one of the terminals; having done so on any one terminal, the next user will own those devices until he or she has logged out of every ter minal that is part of the physical console. Then the race can start for the next user. In practice, this is not a problem; the physical console is not generally in use by many people at the same time, and pam_console.so just tries to do the right thing in weird cases. </snip> so this is a good idea and it makes sense, but what it means that i cannot use the cdrom for instance from an ssh console if i wasn't the user last logged in physically? of course, we don't really want this, because then i could freely do whatever i wish with the floppy of someone else. my question then (considering that i will probably go ahead and amend /etc/security/console.perms appropriately) is how suse handles this. so on a suse system, what determines what to do if a ssh user and a console user both request /dev/ttyS0 write access, and how will this situation be handled? martin madduck@madduck.net (greetings from the heart of the sun)