Best way to gain root privileges

[Terry Reedy]

On 2/17/2011 10:32 AM, GSO wrote:
>> I'm having a awfully hard time figuring out why a home CCTV
>> application might need privilege at all.  Are you sure you really need
>> privilege?  It sounds to me like there may be some larger design
>> issues mandating the need for privilege when it's not really
>> necessary.
>>
>
> A user login should only able to view the footage.  It's important
> that a user login cannot delete any images/video.  This much can be
> done with ACL - but having said that a user login would still be able
> to copy the images/video, so ACL would work but is not ideal - I could
> prevent copying with raised privileges.  If I were to allow a user to
> archive footage without using an admin login then that would require
> ACL with write access, which is out of the question.
>
> If a camera loses its connection I think it's OK to let a user restart
> the camera without using gksu, but this would require raised
> privileges.
>
> There are other misc. points where I need write access.  The directory
> where images are stored by the live feed can become 'messy' (for want
> of a better way of putting it), write access is needed to tidy it up
> before live camera images can be viewed,

Could restarts and cleanups be done with a root daemon separate from 
user scripts?

FWIW, I recently read an article about how some internet-connected 
cameras are much more accessible to the world than the owners probably 
intended, even to the point, sometimes, of providing access to the 
built-in gui control panel. So some thought seems appropriate in this 
area ;-).

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy