[vbox-dev] Latest svn vbox runs only as root?

[walt]

Frank Mehnert wrote:
> walt,
>
> I forward the answer from Knut here as his previous E-mail was
> accidently sent to the wrong address:
>
>    Developers which wish to run directly from the build directory
>    should add VBOX_WITHOUT_HARDENING=1 to their LocalConfig.kmk. If
>    you're going to pack and install the stuff, you need to mark
>    VirtualBox, VirtualBox3, VBoxHeadless, VBoxSDL and VBoxBFE (you
>    might not be shipping all these) as setuid like done at the bottom
>    of debian/postinst.
>
>    Instead of editing LocalConfig.kmk there is now  a configure option
>    for disabling this setuid requirement:
>
>       ./configure --disable-hardened
>
>    Make sure you update any udev rules and reload the right vboxdrv
>    after build it like this, otherwise it won't run (you'll get access
>    denied errors).

For the record, it's ./configure --disable-hardening, but it does the
job.  Thanks very much.

Is there an on-line discussion of why the hardening feature was started
and/or who would want to use it?  (If the discussion has been in this
mailing list then it's well disguised :o)