Again, this is a security issue, not a single/multi user issue. It should
be difficult to delete or modify a .dll/exe program file.
You SHOULD have to type into a special "admin" account to install/remove a
program. Single user or not. You cannot make it any "righter" by saying
a single user is only hurting himself. It's just a bad policy/secruity
measure to alway log in as root, but MS seems not to care, let the user,
or IS or tech support figure out what go changed.
Windows already supports user profiles, why not extend that into a super
user that you must change to to modify the system?
Paul D. Farber II
Farber Technology
Ph. 570-628-5303
Fax 570-628-5545
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On 30 Mar 1999, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Paul Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > BZZT... but joe blow can't delete SYSTEM FILES, or any file the he does
> > not own. Log on a a LUSER and try rm -rf /etc see what gets deleted.
> > Not a darn thing. Same for /bin /sbin etc etc etc.
>
> > My trusty vi editor can shell out, but it will only let me harm myself,
> > not another user or the system proper.
>
> You didn't read the whole thing I wrote about single-user vs. multiuser
> operating systems. If you delete everything on your hard drive under
> Windows, you *are* only harming yourself, since there *are* no other
> users. All the files on the disk are yours if you're sitting in front of
> the computer. You can do the same thing under Linux if you always log on
> as root. Windows just doesn't have a user other than root.
>
> The distinction between system files and user files is only meaningful for
> a multiuser operating system where you have the possibility of a user
> identity other than God.
>
> Furthermore, remember that this particular virus only has to send mail.
> It doesn't have to modify system files. It only has to modify your
> personal document files. It would therefore work just fine on a Unix
> system given a suitable Unix application. It is *not* Microsoft-specific
> in concept; it is only Microsoft-specific in implementation. Were some
> other operating system run by 90% of the computer users in the world,
> you'd see these sorts of things written for that operating system.
>
> Don't fool yourself that it can't happen to you simply by virtue of
> running a different operating system. The only way it can't happen to you
> is if you always *think* before running random programs on stuff you get
> via untrusted channels.
>
> --
> Russ Allbery ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) <URL:http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
>
