running speech-dispatcher as non-root using setuid on XO and accompanying security issues

[Hemant Goyal]

Hi,

What is the need for speech-dispatcher to run as root? Is it possible
to run it as non-root? We need to modify the speechd.conf files from a
non-root program and as such run the speech-dispatcher daemon with
non-root privileges.

To solve the above problem I applied the setuid bits to the
speech-dispatcher executable (and changed the permissions of the
binary to 6711) and things have been rosy.

However, I would like to ask whether using setuid is advisable in the
OLPC laptop from a security point of view? i read using setuid should
generally be avoided, however running speech-dispatcher as non-root is
almost essential in our case.

Looking forward to a reply.

Thanks!
Hemant