Re: Administrative v/s power user Access for Staff and students

[Brian K. Doré <bkd () LOUISIANA EDU>]

All of our users are standard users.   We make a few changes to windows default permissions, such as allowing standard 
users to change the time zone.   We attempt to make minor permissions changes to allow applications to run as a 
standard user.   In some rare cases we grant an exemption if an application requires administrator access.      We do 
delegate administrative rights to certain users or departmental admins so they can install software, drivers, etc.   We 
issue a separate domain accounts for this with a unique naming scheme.   

We don’t use the Power users group except in a few rare circumstances.  Power users have WAY too much access by 
default, and it’s fairly trivial for a power user to elevate themselves to an administrator.     

See:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825069
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2006/05/01/the-power-in-power-users.aspx

I need to clarify that we are still running XP and my comments above relate to that OS.  Power users in Vista and 
Windows 7 are essentially standard users.

(see:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.06.acl.aspx   )

Brian


Brian K. Doré
University of Louisiana at Lafayette

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anand S Malwade" <Anand.Malwade () SHU EDU>
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Sent: Friday, March 6, 2009 12:31:32 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Administrative v/s power user Access for Staff and students




I was wondering what other universities are doing in limiting administrative access on Desktops and laptops for Staff ? 

The rationale being as we know that enterprise workstations run as administrator also makes the network vulnerable to 
malware including viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, adware and unintentional user damage. Malware can exploit a local 
administrator account’s system-level access to damage files, change system configurations, and even transmit 
confidential data outside of the network. Ensuring that all users run as standard users is the primary way to help 
mitigate the impact. 

Has anyone tried giving Power User level access as opposed to full admin rights and if yes what was the overall 
experience ? 

  

Thanks, 

Anand 

  

  

Anand Malwade 

Information Security Officer, 

Seton Hall University,