/usr/local, /var and */tmp in c:\Users\Public

[Warren Young]

On Nov 15, 2014, at 10:55 AM, Lee <ler762@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 11/13/14, Warren Young   wrote:
>> I installed Cygwin with my regular user account,
> 
> You're doing it wrong.  Install Cygwin using an admin account and
> regular user accounts are not allowed write access to system
> files/directories:

While my idea does have applicability to multi-user Windows systems, I also want it to work without using Admin gymnastics on a single-user Windows system.

That is, I want this:

    $ echo -n "" >> /usr/bin/vi

to fail just as this does:

    $ echo -n "" >> /cygdrive/c/Windows/notepad.exe
    -bash: /cygdrive/c/Windows/notepad.exe: Permission denied

I want them both to fail for the same reason: normal users — whether they are members of group Administrators or not — have no business writing to system files.  Only the installer process (Cygwin Setup in this case) should be able to do that.

For what it’s worth:

$ cd /cygdrive/c/Windows
$ icacls notepad.exe
notepad.exe NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller:(F)
            BUILTIN\Administrators:(RX)
            NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)
            BUILTIN\Users:(RX)
            APPLICATION PACKAGE AUTHORITY\ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES:(RX)


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