IBM Z Software
This portal is to open public enhancement requests against IBM Z Software products. To view all of your ideas submitted to IBM, create and manage groups of Ideas, or create an idea explicitly set to be either visible by all (public) or visible only to you and IBM (private), use the IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com).
Shape the future of IBM!
We invite you to shape the future of IBM, including product roadmaps, by submitting ideas that matter to you the most. Here's how it works:
Search existing ideas
Start by searching and reviewing ideas and requests to enhance a product or service. Take a look at ideas others have posted, and add a comment, vote, or subscribe to updates on them if they matter to you. If you can't find what you are looking for,
Post your ideas
Post an idea.
Get feedback from the IBM team and other customers to refine your idea.
Follow the idea through the IBM Ideas process.
Specific links you will want to bookmark for future use
Welcome to the IBM Ideas Portal (https://www.ibm.com/ideas) - Use this site to find out additional information and details about the IBM Ideas process and statuses.
IBM Unified Ideas Portal (https://ideas.ibm.com) - Use this site to view all of your ideas, create new ideas for any IBM product, or search for ideas across all of IBM.
ideasibm@us.ibm.com - Use this email to suggest enhancements to the Ideas process or request help from IBM for submitting your Ideas.
The z/TPF lab plans to implement the "preserve-root" option.
We also recommend investigating the use of user security support that allows a user login such that the ZFILE commands will run with user credentials rather than root authority (similar to Linux).
Running ZFILE commands with limited user credentials will require the user permissions to match file and directory user, group and RWX permissions.
Adding support for 'the standard "preserve-root" and "no-preserve-root" options' would help with the specific case we had. Luckily that incident happened in a test system. We still desire better security. Other standard options could make the ZFILE entries less prone to accidental loss of data, if IBM declines to include some check requirement such as a CONTINUE request on potentially dangerous entries. Perhaps some of the other options for standard entries 'mv', 'cp', and 'rm' could give us greater security. Some 'man' displays from our zlinux system are below.
Sample ZFILE entry options that could have other options added for increased security:
rm option for example, in addition to preserve-root/no-preserve-root:
-i = prompt before every removal
mv command options for example:
--backup[=CONTROL] = make a backup of each existing destination file
-b like --backup but does not accept an argument
-f, --force = do not prompt before overwriting
-i, --interactive = prompt before overwrite
-n, --no-clobber = do not overwrite an existing file
-u, --update = move only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing
-v, --verbose = explain what is being done
cp command options for example:
-n, --no-clobber = do not overwrite an existing file (overrides a previous -i option)
-u, --update = copy only when the SOURCE file is newer than the destination file or when the destination file is missing
-v, --verbose = explain what is being done
We will prevent the "zfile rm -r /" from functioning by adding support for the standard "preserve-root" and "no-preserve-root" options (the former being the default, the latter allowing it to function as it does today).
This will prevent your specific case from doing anything (no removal of files or directories) and is a standard option available on other platforms as well.
Does this approach satisfy your requirement?