[TriLUG] running X client as root in other accounts

Ed Warnicke hagbard at physics.rutgers.edu
Sun Jun 16 16:04:30 EDT 2002


True, but using "xhost +" is a bad practice.  And it is generally
a bad idea to get into the habit of using a bad practice.  A bad
practice will work, but if anything goes wrong it tends to cause
problems.  A good practice both works, and degrades well when things 
go wrong.  

This is especially true when the user doesn't understand what is going
on very well.  When someone doesn't understand well the conditions under
which using the bad practice is safe and the conditions under which it
is problematic they are in danger.  The same user you teach to use xhost
today because they happen to be behind a firewall is likely to continue
to do so when they lack the firewalls protection.

Firewalls are great for providing certain limited types of protection,
but when you start arguing for bad practices based upon their
hypothetical existence, I think you may have gone to far.

Ed

On Sun, 2002-06-16 at 15:07, Thunder Bear wrote:
> On Sun, 2002-06-16 at 14:58, Ed Warnicke wrote:
> > NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Don't do that.  When you type
> > 
> > xhost + 
> > 
> > you allow ANYONE ANYWHERE access to your X server.  
> 
> Which is not a problem when you're sitting at home behind a firewall.
> 
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