Forum Home
PC World Chat
Thread ID: 84142	2007-10-25 18:53:00	Windows vs. Linux vs. Mac Security	somebody (208)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
605360	2007-10-27 02:31:00	So can non-administrative users still install software to some extent or not? As said, i know jack about vista, but i have always seen this as one of the biggest weaknesses within windows, particually with shared machines. If users can install stuff, chances are they will in a shared environment, and thus another machine gets infected. It's a very obvious weakness. I'm just curious. Vista is too new for me to have been called to fix such damage, as yet, but in preparance for the enevitable, i may as well start learning how is works, and what the commonly exploited weaknesses are. UAC (when people don't turn it off!!!) does a really good job at stopping things from running without your permission. It will stop standard users from installing software without entering an admin username/password.	somebody (208)
605361	2007-10-27 02:34:00	So can non-administrative users still install software to some extent or not? As said, i know jack about vista, but i have always seen this as one of the biggest weaknesses within windows, particually with shared machines. If users can install stuff, chances are they will in a shared environment, and thus another machine gets infected. It's a very obvious weakness. I'm just curious. Vista is too new for me to have been called to fix such damage, as yet, but in preparance for the enevitable, i may as well start learning how is works, and what the commonly exploited weaknesses are. What your ignoring is that the end user knowingly installs the software, as in, Gives it permission. Hell, If there were 400 million Linux users you can bet within a week someone would have released an app that promised free porn for life and 60000 people would immediately download it and install it, No matter what the damn thing was really up to. People will gladly install advertising software and malicious code on their PC's if its available, Thousands upon thousands do it every day if not every hour. Read my lips, The main weakness is the user, and the stupid ones haven't got the knowledge to acquire and setup up Linux. Hell, Most of em cant reset windows when its pre-installed and has a menu entry called RESET WINDOWS.	Metla (12)
605362	2007-10-27 02:36:00	And on that note, anyone who thinks their OS of choice is resilient enough to withstand the combined might of 500 million average users and the people that pray on them is living in a dreamland.	Metla (12)
605363	2007-10-27 02:46:00	Read my lips, The main weakness is the user, and the stupid ones haven't got the knowledge to acquire and setup up Linux. Hell, Most of em cant reset windows when its pre-installed and has a menu entry called RESET WINDOWS. That would account for just about everybody who uses a computer. Some are too stupid or nieve and some just don't need or want to know.	winmacguy (3367)
605364	2007-10-27 02:47:00	What your ignoring is that the end user knowingly installs the software, as in, Gives it permission. Hell, If there were 400 million Linux users you can bet within a week someone would have released an app that promised free porn for life and 60000 people would immediately download it and install it, No matter what the damn thing was really up to.I'm not ignoring it at all, but perhaps i'm giving to much cred to the administrative user not allowing such things. I'm probably optomistic to assume that all system owners are smarter than the avourage end user, but it is one line of defence. Another is that "free-prn-for-life" is unlikely to find it's way into say, the debian software repositorys, however that won't outright stop 10,000 determend ******s from downloading and trying to run such a program, and if some of these people have root access, then that's it, the machines are screwed..	personthingy (1670)
605365	2007-10-27 04:49:00	I'm not ignoring it at all, but perhaps i'm giving to much cred to the administrative user not allowing such things . I'm probably optomistic to assume that all system owners are smarter than the avourage end user, but it is one line of defence . Another is that "free-prn-for-life" is unlikely to find it's way into say, the debian software repositorys, however that won't outright stop 10,000 determend ******s from downloading and trying to run such a program, and if some of these people have root access, then that's it, the machines are screwed . . Lots of deep breaths think of the queen and you will be at peace with world . And with luck,the administrator too .	Cicero (40)
605366	2007-10-27 22:06:00	I think Personthingy is trying to make the point that in a non-windows OS, the worst you can do as a "user" is to install software that kills off your users personal documents & settings. It wont affect the rest of the machine because of the way the OS was designed, keeping users seperate and trusting nobody. With the design like this, it makes it more secure against the type of user who would simply say "Oooh look, free cursors and emoticons, I want!" and low & behold every user on that system is now crippled by spyware, trojans, whatever you want... IF software like that were written for Linux or MacOS for example, it would require the user to explicitly state the administrator password before proceeding. Thing is, most apps will happily NOT require that (Games like UT2004, Flash..) and simply install within that users Home Directory (Documents & Settings folder equivalent) meaning that nobody else would be affected by that users poor choices. Still.. I could argue this til the cows come home, I'll shutup for the sake of avoiding a flame-war :D	Chilling_Silence (9)
605367	2007-10-27 22:13:00	Ok, I'll keep an eye out for cows... I'm of the opinion that if their were 500 million users and potentially billions of dollars to be made the peeps that produce malicious software would steamroll all over the protection afforded by the stucture of the OS. hell, It would probally cause the collapse of Linux to the point it would never recover, Once the ground work was done and people had a starting point there is no way in hell patches would be able to be produced fast enough, The system in place just isn't up to it. At the end of the day spyware is a bigger industry then Mac and Linux put together. ......................Mooooooo Now all we need is 500 million users to prove me right.	Metla (12)
605368	2007-10-27 22:46:00	I think Personthingy is trying to make the point that in a non-windows OS, the worst you can do as a "user" is to install software that kills off your users personal documents & settings. It wont affect the rest of the machine because of the way the OS was designed, keeping users seperate and trusting nobody. With the design like this, it makes it more secure against the type of user who would simply say "Oooh look, free cursors and emoticons, I want!" and low & behold every user on that system is now crippled by spyware, trojans, whatever you want... IF software like that were written for Linux or MacOS for example, it would require the user to explicitly state the administrator password before proceeding. Thing is, most apps will happily NOT require that (Games like UT2004, Flash..) and simply install within that users Home Directory (Documents & Settings folder equivalent) meaning that nobody else would be affected by that users poor choices. NO flame war needed, Chill, your right on the money. :) According to this recent article even malware that is written for MS Word but developed on OS X wont have the same affect on OS X as it will in Windows due to the design of OS X Ben Greenbaum, senior researcher at Symantec Security Response, said the fact that the exploit was created on a Mac wasn't really relevant and didn't demonstrate any inherent weakness in the Mac platform with regard to security. In fact, he said that using a Mac version of Microsoft Word served to limit the effectiveness of the exploit because "many installations in the field won't open the file." www.informationweek.com So that would blow Metla's theory out of the water.	winmacguy (3367)
605369	2007-10-27 23:54:00	And on that note, anyone who thinks their OS of choice is resilient enough to withstand the combined might of 500 million average users and the people that pray on them is living in a dreamland. Yes I think its more nanny bulls***. An O/S isn't supposed to be there to hold your hand and lead you around. Its there to be an interface between you and the hardware. What you do with it is your problem, not anyone elses. Unfortunately 99% of the world thinks everything is someones elses fault and they should be free to be complete morons without consequences.	pctek (84)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8