script security: permissions

[DPisarev]

Hi,

I have a newbie question, for which I nonetheless could not find a reasonable answer on Google no matter how long I searched.

It's stated everywhere that a script's permission must be 755 for it to work. While I understand the need to give everyone the permission to *execute* a script, I don't see why anyone but the script's owner should have *read* access to it. If you let someone see the logic of your script, aren't you compromising your system? The same goes for *write* permissions for database files: as soon as someone finds out these files exist, won't they be able to tamper with them given that these files are world-writable?

Sorry if my questions sound primitive, but nonetheless I still couldn't find a straight answer to them anywhere on the web...

Thanks in advance,
Dmitri.

 

[jamisar]

all interpreted scripts like shell, perl and so on
have to be readable and executable by the user using
it, for awk -f cmdfile the last must be readable.
they don't need to be writeable, as long you don't
make changes in it.
so: chmod 555 filename. -----------
when they don't ask you anymore, where they are come from, and they don't tell you anymore, where they go ... you'r getting older !

 

[DPisarev]

Many thanks, jamisar. You're right, a script does need to be readable to be executable, I just verified that.

But one probably still doesn't want the code of one's web scripts to be ever *read* by the world, right? Are there ways to make sure the logic of one's script is never seen by outsiders, even though the script is technically readable?

Also, since files that scripts write to ("database" files) have to be writeable, isn't there a chance a malicious hacker may also be able to modify such a "database" file directly?

Thanks again,
Dmitri.

 

[MikeLacey]

Unless you're running it as root. If you're running as root it just needs to be excecutable. (tested on SunOs 5.8) Mike

"Experience is the comb that Nature gives us, after we are bald."

Is that a haiku?
I never could get the hang
of writing those things.