Answer by Gilles for Why does mount require root privileges?
It's both a historical and security restriction. Historically, most drives weren't removable. So it made sense to restrict mounting to people who had legitimate physical access, and they would likely...
View ArticleAnswer by Lie Ryan for Why does mount require root privileges?
In GNOME, gvfs does not require root for mounting remote filesystem (ftp or ssh) and gnome-mount also does not need root for mounting external storage (usb drive, CD/DVD, etc). Most systems probably...
View ArticleAnswer by psusi for Why does mount require root privileges?
If a user has direct write access to a block device, and can mount that block device, then they can write a suid executable to the block device, mount, it, and execute that file, and thus, gain root...
View ArticleAnswer by BraveNewCurrency for Why does mount require root privileges?
FYI: The newest kernels have "namespace" support. Ordinary users can create a namespace, and within that namespace, become root and do fun stuff like mount file-systems. It doesn't give you "real"...
View ArticleAnswer by goldilocks for Why does mount require root privileges?
Kormac and others have indicated that this is not the dilemma you present it as; it seems to me this comes down to philosophy of explicitly granting users privileges vs. a system whereby all users...
View ArticleAnswer by sendmoreinfo for Why does mount require root privileges?
Because the data on filesystem they intend to mount might compromise security of the server, or even crash it (if it was intentionally constructed that way).
View ArticleAnswer by R. S. for Why does mount require root privileges?
It doesn't always require super privs. From man mount The non-superuser mounts. Normally, only the superuser can mount filesystems. However, when fstab contains the user option on a line, anybody can...
View ArticleWhy does mount require root privileges?
Why does Linux require that a user be root/using sudo/specifically authorized per mount in order to mount something? It seems like the decision as to whether to allow a user to mount something should...
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