Subject: restricted text editor, anyone?

From: [email-masked] (Leslie M. Barstow III)
Date: 13 Jan 1996 19:15:50 GMT

I am looking for a text editor which is easy to use and can be put into a
restricted mode which disallows all shell access, and restricts file saving
and reading.

The restricted mode of PICO which is available through PINE is good, but
I can't seem to convince PICO to enter this mode without PINE.  I have
tried setting gmode |= MDSCUR in a couple of spots within the source, but I
still get a non-restricted version...

A similar feature in a newsreader would be cool, too, but is not necessary.

--
Leslie M. Barstow III             | "How may I be honest with you today"
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From: [email-masked] (R. Stewart Ellis)
Date: 14 Jan 96 14:30:27 GMT

>A similar feature in a newsreader would be cool, too, but is not necessary.

I have set up a system with a menu under rsh, in which the pico user can
save files, but only in the current directory.  Wouldn't that do what you
want?

-- 
  R.Stewart(Stew) Ellis, Assoc.Prof., (Off)810-762-9765   ___________________
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  Flint, MI 48504      [email-masked]               /        / /  /  / /
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From: [email-masked] (Leslie M. Barstow III)
Date: 19 Jan 1996 02:51:23 GMT

Jacob C Kesinger ([email-masked]) wrote:
: [email-masked] (Leslie M. Barstow III) writes:

: :I am looking for a text editor which is easy to use and can be put into a
: :restricted mode which disallows all shell access, and restricts file saving
: :and reading.

: I don't think I quite understand.  You want a text editor that can't
: speak to the filesystem, as it were?  Just something for people to type in?  

Perhaps the word 'restricted' was a bit vague.  PICO, when used in PINE's
'restricted' or 'demo' mode, will only edit the file specified in the command
line - you cannot load a file from elsewhere, nor can you save the one you are
editting to any other file.  The only outside intervention allowed in the
editor is an interface to 'spell'.  My problem is PICO the standalone does not
have the ability to be a restricted editor.

I would like to use this editor as the standard editor for my BBS (which uses
rocat as a base).

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From: [email-masked] (Jacob C Kesinger)
Date: 17 Jan 96 17:24:23 GMT

:I am looking for a text editor which is easy to use and can be put into a
:restricted mode which disallows all shell access, and restricts file saving
:and reading.

I don't think I quite understand.  You want a text editor that can't
speak to the filesystem, as it were?  Just something for people to type in?  
For a class or somehting?  I prob. misunderstood, but that's what I assume
below.

:The restricted mode of PICO which is available through PINE is good, but
:I can't seem to convince PICO to enter this mode without PINE.  I have
:tried setting gmode |= MDSCUR in a couple of spots within the source, but I
:still get a non-restricted version...

I don't have the pico source handy, but what you might do is:
1.  Make it suid to user nobody (you do have root access for this, right?)
    and do the suid in the initialization code.  The problem would be that
    you could still read/write world accessible files.
2.  Find the file reading/writing code.  Maybe whenever a file is opened
    for reading/writing you could instead open /dev/null?