CDs are dangerous

[rbandrews]

Public Service Announcement Shaming:

Reading how to reset the root password on a Mac led to this little tidbit:

"IMPORTANT: Because a user with the Mac OS X install disc can gain unrestricted access to your computer, you should keep the disc in a safe place."

What's that, Apple? Did you just say that if any idiot with a blank CD has physical access to my CD drive, they can root my machine?

I bet the Math Emporium people would find that interesting...

Comments

[rbandrews]

The goal shouldn't be to make it impossible, that's obviously not going to happen. The goal should be to make it reasonably hard. If I have to boot into something else, that's reasonably hard. If they vary the salt and store it on a system-specific emergency boot CD, that's reasonably hard.

[candle.livejournal.com]

To an attacker, there's no appreciable difference to using a Knoppix disc than an official OS X password reset disc, so your suggested change would not prevent any but the dumbest attackers but would make genuine users' lives harder. If you've not read it, you should get a copy of Beyond Fear (http://www.schneier.com/book-beyondfear.html).

A tidbit I forgot to tag on previously - most users are prolly more worried that if someone has physical access to their computer that they're going to steal it than root it.

[rbandrews]

This is just the thread that will not end, isn't it?

There are places where there are lots of Macs and most people who use them are not root. One of these is the Math Emporium.

If you boot a Mac off of Knoppix and fiddle around with it, someone walking around watching you, like the people at the Math Emporium, will notice and stop you.

If you boot a Mac off its install disc, it still looks like a Mac unless you look closely, so people walking around watching you won't notice.

Thus, making it just a little bit harder would, in the specific case I mentioned, have a real security benefit.

Why is that so hard to comprehend?