Uh right, but should the language talking about a potential major 
release binding be removed, then I think the following discussion still 
becomes relevant.

Then again, maybe we should just derail this in general, just because 
this seems to have become rather "non-obvious"?
(That's a question, not a statement.)

GO LAKERS!

- jek3



Garrett D'Amore wrote:
> Can we stop arguing about this at this point?  I think Joe asked for 
> the case to be modified to remove the contentious language.  Either it 
> will, and all this argument is moot, or it won't, and the case will be 
> derailed.
>
> If the former, then having this discussion now is a waste of time.
>
> If the latter, then having this discussion right now is probably still 
> a waste of time, because at that point the project team is probably 
> going to need to prepare more complete case materials.
>
> Submitter, I haven't noticed, has the spec for this case been updated 
> as Joe requested?   Or are you declining to do so?
>
>    -- Garrett
>
> Darren Reed wrote:
>> james hughes wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> On May 13, 2008, at 4:50 PM, Bart Smaalders wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> How do I log into and configure a blank system image?  Is a default
>>>> account created that has this privilege, or does the lack of such
>>>> an account mean that the system must be repaired by booting
>>>> from alternate media?
>>>
>>>
>>> Loosing or breaking the administrator's account is identical to  
>>> loosing root password.
>>>
>>>> How will we insure that there are real administrative users present
>>>> in the password file?
>>>
>>>
>>> The real administrative users present in the password file because 
>>> the  initial installation put it there.
>>>
>>> This is not about the elimination of root as a much as it is the  
>>> ability to create a machine that has a no root password. Previous  
>>> methods of having root have a password are still possible.
>>
>>
>> Are you not creating a root account or are you creating a root account
>> but not using the root username?
>>
>> If you're creating a system administration account, but simply under
>> another name, then there is no security benefit from this change -
>> except that someone now has to "guess" the administration account
>> name if they don't know it already...
>>
>> ...and this is where Windows is at today: it's come from having
>> "administrator" as the default "root" account to creating a user
>> account at install (using your name) that has full privilege,
>> meaning malware likely has the required privilege it needs when
>> opened via Outlook, even though the user who is logged in is
>> not called "administrator", they still have "administrator" power.
>> Net result: you have to guess an account name to try and login
>> to the system with before going further.
>>
>> If there is no followup to this case to make the prescribed
>> changes to root then I'd like the following questions to be
>> answered as part of this case (if it hasn't been derailed yet):
>>
>> What are the security threats that this change is intended
>> to provide protection from?
>>
>> How does this change mitigate the security threats that
>> it is intending to provide protection from?
>>
>> What are the security risks that this change introduces?
>>
>> Darren
>>
>
>


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