Non priviledged commands fail after patch cluster install

Question

For several years, to allow users to access system functions for higher clock resolutions in their
applications, we have made the following mods to two files (per Sun recommendations):
In the /etc/system file, add lines:
* 10 ms clock resolution*
set higher_tick = 1*
In /etc/user_attr, add:
dssuser::::type=normal;defaultpriv=proc_clock_highres,file_link_any,proc_info,proc_session,proc_fork,proc_exec
Everything was fine until I installed the latest patch cluster (from 2-14-2011) on our Netra 210. No issues installing the cluster. Upon reboot, the dssuser cannot do some simple things, like use ftp or ping. Messages like this:
ping: unknown host
ftp: socket: Permission denied.
The root user has no problems using any of these commands. As soon as I comment out the dssuser line from the /etc/user_attr file, everything works as expected. But we need the highres clock settings for our applications. I am unfamiliar with the workings and intent of the entries in user_attr so any help would be most appreciated.
Mark

Answer 1

The problem is that after patch implementation, the special privileges for any user defined in the /etc/user_attr file were modified to append the string "!net_privaddr" specifically denying use of common commands ping and ftp for example. The output of ppriv:
$ ppriv $$
14870: -sh
flags = <none>
E: basic,proc_clock_highres,!net_privaddr
I: basic,proc_clock_highres,!net_privaddr
P: basic,proc_clock_highres,!net_privaddr
L: all
I had to add the keyword net_privaddr in the user_attr file like:
dssuser::::type=normal;defaultpriv=proc_clock_highres,file_link_any,proc_info,proc_session,proc_fork,proc_exec,net_privaddr
to get past this problem. A bug or what?