[at-l] OT: building a good firewall

[askowronek at mindspring.com (Amy Skowronek)]

On Dec 22, 2005, at 10:23 AM, Kurt Cedergren wrote:


>    What will happen if the bad guys start targeting OS X? Not much.
> Unlike Windows, Mac OS X does not allow programs to take over central
> operations of the computer, nor does it let a program (or even a user)
> install new software without express permission.
>    So anything that sneaks into an Apple OS X Macintosh would have to
> convince the user to type the "admin" password before it could install
> malicious software. If this happened, an OS X invader would then have
> to overcome the protections built into Unix and disable the OS X
> firewall before it could cause problems or report home -- a scenario
> that's unlikely at best.

Not true.  Users can install stuff in their home directories without  
admin permission.  Software can run just fine from the home  
directory.  It would have to run with user or nobody permissions, but  
that can still do plenty of damage.

-amy