Re: Security options

[Phil R Lawrence]

Yesterday we were discussing the following set-up:
  - user account 'phil'
  - user account 'cvs-phil' with shell /sbin/nologin
  - cvs-phil has group rights to modify projects
  - SSH configuration allows cvs-phil only to run cvs

As Mark pointed out, /sbin/nologin prevents phil (or anyone else) from 
su'ing to cvs-phil.

However, it also prevents an SSH connection, which causes an error when 
 using cvs:
  cvs update: warning: unrecognized response `This account
  is currently not available.' from cvs server

My best idea is to leave cvs-phil with a regular shell, but disallow 
su'ing to cvs-phil (via chuser on AIX, but how about linux?).  Since our 
server will be physically secured, no one could directly log onto the 
console as cvs-phil.  Then SSH will be configured to only allow the cvs 
command.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks,
Phil