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Re: Ubuntu 11.10 now unsecure by default


From: 夜神 岩男 <supergiantpotato () yahoo co jp>
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:12:45 +0900

On 11/18/2011 11:33 PM, Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu wrote:
On Fri, 18 Nov 2011 06:10:00 PST, Dan Kaminsky said:

OK, seriously.  If you're sitting in front of a machine that's presenting
you a login prompt, you've got enough privileges to insert a bootable
USB/CD and pull all the data / make yourself an account (FDE/Bios PW
notwithstanding).

Right.  Which is why a passwordless guest account available to people who have
physical access isn't such a big deal.  The problem is that if you manage to
get ssh enabled, there's not *that* much stopping the account from being used
from Zanzibar.

Some operating systems (AIX, for instance) allowed tagging a userid as "local
access only", or even "may only login on tty 3, 5, and 23".  Adding that sort
of a tag to the guest account would help the situation by adding some
security in depth.

Not saying this train of thought itself is safe, but... we've needed a 
singleuser mode (by whatever name) as a failsafe since ages forgotten.

That being said, I don't know what is necessary about a default guest 
account -- those who really need physical access, passwordless guest 
accounts tend to know how to set them up.

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