The reason you can't do this as an unpriveleged user is because YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO. Don't you think it would defeat the purpose of a security device, if the configs were not secured?

If you need to get the config files, the first thing you need to do is get proper access to the machine. After that is done, there are various methods you can use to get the config files. The best way is probably via the objects_5_0.C, but it is not gonna do you much good unless you can write yourself a PERL utility to format the data into something a little more readable.

If you need to audit the firewall, ask your admin to get you a copy of the config...........