[arch-general] Why is it dangerous to run makepkg as root?

[Dimitris Zervas]

On May 17, 2014 5:22:32 PM EEST, Roland Tapken <ml at lalamuhkuh.de> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>> A good idea is to automatically change to a much more restricted
>user, used
>> just for building (no shells, logins, etc.). 
>
>What do you think about patching yaourt to that it, if executed as
>root, runs 
>makepkg as a special user? Or changing makepkg to drop it's own
>privileges if 
>executed as root?
>
>Regards,
>
>Roland

Both.
Yaourt to ensure that you did not download anything via root (and have permission/security problems etc.)
Makepkg patch for those who do not use yaourt.
Makepkg HAS to create a special user on install, or use the nobody user.

I would really like to help patching, but my time is extremely limited (finals in 2 weeks).

Good luck! :)

BTW: Another good idea that would be helpful is add comments on installed packages on pacman. e.g. why did you install them. But that's another thread