From: frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 16:18:55 -0800 (PST)
To: John Fricker <chudov@algebra.com
Subject: RE: ideal secure personal computer system
Message-ID: <199611180018.QAA11009@netcom6.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 12:51 PM 11/16/96 -0800, John Fricker wrote:
>In WinNT a program may impersonate a user such as Guest. Also, trojan horses
>are ineffective in NT as typical users do not have write permission to system
>binaries. 

I assume that administrators only run programs from trusted libraries and
do not include their current directory in their path.  They never run
programs that aren't directly related to systems administration etc. etc.
etc.  The typical Trojan horest sits around until someone with the proper
authority runs it.

That is not the way NT is used at one large commercial operation I am
somewhat familar with.  (I'm being obscure to protect the guilty.)  I think
there are very few NT (or Unix) systems which are administrated with a safe
level of paranoia.  I would like to see more compartmentalization in the
system.

(Note that even if it only runs with a user's privileges, a Trojan horse
will have no problem stealing e.g. that user's PGP secret key ring.  Not
everything of value is in system files.  Question, can a user-level Trojan
horse insert itself as a keyboard monitor and get the PGP pass phrase as
well?)


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