[TriLUG] Privileges and Social Engineering

[Mike Johnson]

Jeff Tickle [jtickle at jtsoft.net] wrote:
> So on the Apple, does the user set the root password at some point?  You

Nope.  They have a concept of 'administrative' users.  These users can
use sudo (from the command line) or authenticate through the GUI when
root-ish powers are needed.

Now, you -can- enable the root account and give it a password, but it's
a bunch of hoops, and noob's will never do it.

> make a good point that there are still good vulnerabilities in the home
> directory.  I didn't think of those, and there's no real way around
> them.  And you'll always indeed have the very few people (but enough)
> who install that cool program that "Bob" sent them.  I don't suppose
> there's any real good way of getting around the problem...

A very tight SELinux setup might pull it off, but it'd be annoying
enough that regular users wouldn't use it.
 
> Oh well.  It was just a thought.  Possibly still not a bad idea, but
> definitely not a 100% effective solution.

Though, there is something to be said for an 80% solution...

Mike
-- 
"If life hands you lemons, YOU BLOW THOSE LEMONS TO BITS WITH 
 YOUR LASER CANNONS!" -- Brak

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