I'm, talking about if your unning/installing a RPM or what have you with root privledges or you're actually logged on as root. As for that POS Palladium...that's a whole different can of worms. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Bushman" To: Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 6:38 AM Subject: Re: Win32 API utterly and irreprarable broken > On Thu, 8 Aug 2002, Dr. G wrote: > > > Other then that, if your running a program on your PC someone else made that > > you don't 100% trust, your gambling, no matter if it's windows or linux. > > Not so. Linux doesn't allow user accounts to > escalate their level. You can trash your own > data, but not the system. > > If I set up a user named "magilla" in Linux, and > use that account to execute all my untrusted code, > I am confident that it cannot escalate its level > without using a currently unknow exploit - that is, > it cannot modify anything outside of /home/magilla > and /tmp. Better yet, I can chroot the account and > it won't be able to even see anything outside of > /home/magilla. > > If I set up "magilla" in 2000, I am confident that > it can escalate its level - that is, it can do > anything to anything on the box. > > That's the problem - it is currently impossible > to execute untrusted code on a Windows box safely. > That's what the author means by "unfixable" - it's > currently impossible to have a functional Windows > box on which you can safely execute untrusted code. > > This is why Microsoft thinks Palladium is necessary. > They don't even grasp the fact that you can safely > execute untrusted code if your operating system's > security is designed correctly. So they have to > implement this ridiculous scheme where every piece > of code is authenticated by an outside authority. > > ________________________________________________ > See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your mail doesn't post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail. > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >