/dev/lan /dev/ether permission

[krs2prs]

Hi,
/dev/lan* and /dev/ether* comes with 666 as default permmission. Is it ok if I change this to 600? Would there be any impact on my system? below is the ls output sample:

crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0a0000 Apr 10 2005 /dev/lan8
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0a0001 Aprr 10 2005 /dev/ether8
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0b0000 Apr 10 2005 /dev/lan7
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0b0001 Apr 10 2005 /dev/ether7
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x090000 Apr 10 2005 /dev/lan6

regards,
krs

[Dennis Handly]

In the past, some rotten produces would read the /dev/lan to get the MAC address for some type of licensing. That would be my only caution.

[krs2prs]

Hi Dennis,
Can you elaborate more on this?
regards,
krs

[whiteknight · Accepted solution]

KRS

Please also refer to this doc.

permission on /dev
http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en&docId=emr_na-c00929927-1


WK

please assign points.

[Dennis Handly]

>Can you elaborate more on this?

Some third party products opened /dev/lan0 to get the MAC address to use in their licensing scheme. When the permissions were set to 600, they would no longer work, pain all around.

[rick jones]

Of course, such licensing software was supposed to switch to using DLPI or other calls decades ago (literally). And not to far from a decade ago those /dev/lan, /dev/ether interfaces stopped being made, which leads me to wonder just what version of HP-UX is being used here.

Ever since 11.0, and perhaps even 10.20 the correct way to do link-level access would be to open /dev/dlpi and use DLPI primitives to select the interface etc...

[krs2prs]

Hi Rick,
I'm using 11.11 and 11.23. So what would you recommend? Should I change the permission?
regards,
-chris

[skt_skt]

11.11

[/dev] ll /dev/eth*;ll /dev/lan*
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x000001 Jan 23 2002 /dev/ether0
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x010001 Oct 30 2001 /dev/ether1
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0a0001 Oct 17 2004 /dev/ether10
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0b0001 Oct 17 2004 /dev/ether11
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0c0001 Oct 17 2004 /dev/ether12
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0d0001 Oct 17 2004 /dev/ether13
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x020001 Oct 30 2001 /dev/ether2
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x030001 Oct 30 2001 /dev/ether3
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x040001 Oct 30 2001 /dev/ether4
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x050001 Mar 22 2004 /dev/ether5
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x060001 Oct 17 2004 /dev/ether6
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x070001 Oct 17 2004 /dev/ether7
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 9 Dec 14 2005 /dev/lan -> /dev/dlpi
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x000000 Jan 23 2002 /dev/lan0
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x010000 Oct 30 2001 /dev/lan1
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0a0000 Oct 17 2004 /dev/lan10
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0b0000 Oct 17 2004 /dev/lan11
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0c0000 Oct 17 2004 /dev/lan12
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x0d0000 Oct 17 2004 /dev/lan13
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x020000 Oct 30 2001 /dev/lan2
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x030000 Oct 30 2001 /dev/lan3
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x040000 Oct 30 2001 /dev/lan4
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x050000 Mar 22 2004 /dev/lan5
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x060000 Oct 17 2004 /dev/lan6
crw-rw-rw- 1 bin bin 14 0x070000 Oct 17 2004 /dev/lan7

11.23

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root sys 9 Aug 16 2006 /dev/lan -> /dev/dlpi

"ll /dev/eth*"
/dev/eth* not found

[rick jones]

I'm rather surprised those /dev/lan and /dev/ether interfaces are there. Makes me wonder if they are a different flavor of DLPI attach interfaces. Are there actually that many interfaces on the system in the first place?

Why is it again that you are concerned about them?