On Jul 18, 2005, at 8:24 AM, Jack Johnson wrote:
On 7/17/05, Dave Lukes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
If you store data on a machine to which other people have physical
access, there are many simple ways for them to remove or tamper
with it.
I remember seeing USB fingerprint scanners in some random store a few
years back and laughed hysterically when I saw that particular brand
was compatible with Windows 98 only.
Sure, pretty much any physical access will let you in, but some
portals are easier to squeeze through than others (pun intended).
Our "first timer" doesnt' realize that Plan 9 defaults to "terminal
mode" on install.
The reasoning behind this "easy access to files" is that you
shouldn't be keeping your
files on a local machine. Plan 9 was designed for grids with I/O
nodes that have some
physical security. While you "can" run most anything you want in
terminal mode it's not
the originally intended configuration for the OS.
I still like this model better, there is no root user, though there
is a filesystem owner
which I guess is similar.
Personally, the first thing I do when I install plan 9 is to compile
a cpu/fs/auth kernel
and switch to that after a bit of testing. Then I drawterm in. I
can have many users but there
is still only one "owner" for those files on the system.
What I wonder about is how to make it so not just anyone can do "con /
srv/fscons" and get full
access to the files :).
I'm still pretty new to all of this too, mainly due to sporadic spare
time to play around with it.
Dave
-Jack
