Security on /dev

[Smith Jeremy <jrsmit2@uswest.com>]

Does anyone know of any kind of documentation on what permissions on Linux
devices should be?

I find myself needing to enable write access to various system devices in
order to allow users to use applications (for instance adding write access
to /dev/mixer in order to change the volume, or read access to /dev/hdc in
order to use a CDROM player) but I'm somewhat uncomfortable with doing so
for security purposes.  I can imagine that exploits can exist which use
improperly configured devices, but on the other hand I want people to have
that X, sound, and the ability to mount and unmount removable media.

Jer