Security issues in publishing content of /etc ?

[lemieuxs () ca inter net]

Hi there,
  I was wondering about the following idea.

  What if the content of the /etc/ directory of a linux server was public to anyone logged
in. And what if 
anyone could log in, with read-only access.

  I believe the security issue here is that there will be no secrets for anyone who wants
to hack, they'll 
know the DNS IP, running services, their options, they will be able to copy /etc/passwd
and crack the 
passwords with time.

  What else could bring a security issue?

  I'm asking this because I'm soon going to develop a file sharing program which the whole
network will 
mimic a single virtual host, but with no central nodes, the write permissions will be
stored publicly,etc.  
I'll probably post my project's headline when I get a clearer idea of how to handle it.

Thanks in advance,
 Simon


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