[tkmd]

I have no idea why permissions change by themselves. I understand that in 10.2 this was more frequent of a problem than in 10.3 but what activities cause permissions to get messed up? Any reason why my app folder within 2 days of uptime changes its permission to 502 (when apparently its supposed to be 0 according to disc repair?)

does emptying the trash frequently help? I know that im reaching on that reasoning-but I have not emptied it in like 6 months (gigs of trash)...

[TETENAL]

Permission don't change by themselves. But applications can change them. Especially prone to this are faulty installers (and often you have to give them your admin password so they have the absolute power to mess with everything).

Did you install anything (third party) within these two days?

[tkmd]

That makes sense - I've been installing the latest firefox builds. Seems to me that this should be a security risk considering that an instally can change permissions? I thought that was the exclusive right of the root?

[Chuckit]

And giving something an admin password gives it all the rights of root.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by tkmd:
That makes sense - I've been installing the latest firefox builds.

Firefox is installed by drag & drop. That doesn't change any permission. Drag & drop installations are safe and clean.

I meant installers like package installations using Installer.app or VISE installers.

Seems to me that this should be a security risk considering that an instally can change permissions? I thought that was the exclusive right of the root?

Often installers ask for an admin password so they can become root and do anything they want. And if they are faulty they can mess up permissions. Even if you don't provide a password but run them as admin they can change permissions wherever an admin has write privileges (like /Library).