Hi Esther, According to Mac oS X help, Standard users should only be able to install software for their own accounts. Having just tried to run my test with my admin details and found out that I am able to install Software Updates is concerning. This included a Mac OS X Combined update which must surely affect system changes. I was obviously wrong, but I thought that Standard users could not install software as in Windows and Ubuntu Linux I think.
Perhaps I'll log into my Admin account and add some parental controls to make this as i feel it should be. Take care James ----- Original Message ----- From: "Esther" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 9:16 PM Subject: Re: Security question about standard account > > Hi James, > > You always have to authorize system changes from an admin user > account. If you perform system updates, and are using an account with > admin privileges, you'll be prompted to enter your password. If you > perform maintenance tasks through commands issued from terminal (even > from an account with admin privileges) you will be told that you don't > have permission to execute these -- you need to prefix the command > with "sudo" to log in with "superuser" (admin) privileges as in: > sudo periodic weekly > to manually run the weekly maintenance tasks. Then you'll be prompted > for your admin password. > > James, if you weren't prompted for an admin user name and password, > you would have to log out of your account entirely an log into an > admin account to make system changes. The point of working from a > standard user account is not to avoid having to avoid and admin log > in, since these actions are encrypted. The main reason for working > from a standard account is that you won't be able to inadvertently > make major changes to your system using your power as an admin user. > For example, you won't be able to delete fundamental system > applications while you're learning to navigate the Mac for the first > time and work with files -- just because your focus was on the wrong > file when you pressed your delete key. > > It's actually standard practice in linux and unix that you don't log > directly into the root account for the system. You set up user > accounts with root privilege, and even then most users work from their > regular accounts and only log in as superuser to their root accounts > (by typing "su" instead of "sudo") when they need to perform changes > that require system privileges. > > Hope this helps. > > Cheers, > > Esther > > James & Nash wrote: > >> As I have said before, for my daily computing needs I use a standard >> account. however, I have a question. >> >> Is there a way of disabling the request by Mac OS X which brings up a >> dialogue to enter an admin username and password when wanting to >> effect >> system changes please? I'm asking because of course, i know my admin >> details >> and as i'm able to enter them in the dialogue to do what i want, it >> seems to >> negate the security measure of a standard acount? > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
