At 994740997s since epoch (07/10/01 03:56:37 -0400 UTC), Ethan Benson wrote: > detectability is the key here, the case should be locked shut ... > > compare this to your envolope idea where the machine need not even be > shutdown and tell me which is more likely to go by unnoticed.
Okay, we've all drifted pretty far here. I was only describing one particular setup that we used. My point was to emphasize the use of sudo, and the fact that nobody knew the root password. There were specific circumstances that caused the use of the "envelope" system. As always, everyone has to weigh security against usability. Just so you know, the box in question was a student webserver at my college. It was run purely by students, and we had several admins. The machine lived in the college's machine room, which had door locks and an alarm system. If the students were away on vacation and the machine needed a reboot (or fsck, or whatever), the college IT staff could be paged in and use the envelope to get root on the box. It was *reasonable* to assume that nobody would break into the machine room without tripping the alarm system. It was *reasonable* to assume that the IT staff wouldn't go rooting our box for fun when we weren't around. Again, it all comes down to trust at one point or another. We could have welded the case shut and kept the root password in a fireproof safe with a hair-trigger self-destruct mechanism, but we're a student group, not the CIA. We make backups, and so the setup above gave us enough security to feel comfortable without driving everyone nuts. Same should go for everyone. If it's your company's payroll machine, then perhaps some of the other measures described are appropriate. If it's a public lab machine, then obviously sticking an envelope to it would be foolish. Each situation dictates different security measures. Anyway, like I said, my story was more about using sudo (that is, theoretically, what this thread is about), and less about how to implement physical security at any given location. That discussion is interesting, but bear in mind that physical security should be very closely tied to the environment. My story was just for illustration. Rock on, Jason -- Jason Healy | [EMAIL PROTECTED] LogN Systems | http://www.logn.net/