[LINK] RFI: Multi-User Capability on User Machines

[Kim Holburn]

As stated then no current system is multi-user since there are 2  
problems:

1) the super-user problem
2) the physical access problem.

With physical access you can always get all data on a disk.

The super-user problem is non-trivial.  Someone in the house (and  
presumably an interested party) must have super-user privileges.  The  
only OS that deals with that correctly is "Plan 9" which is probably  
not in the running.

The only way around this is to use encryption then the privilege  
separation issues are irrelevant.


Ignoring those 2 issues then Windows has had account separation from  
NT 4 (provided you use ntfs), linux provided you don't use FAT and  
Macos from MacOS X on.

That said I have had real problems at times trying to run Windows XP  
without Admin rights.  Are you talking about normal use like burning  
disks?

Kim

On 2006 Sep 04, at 4:43 PM, Roger Clarke wrote:

> Chris's post makes clear to me that I still haven't been precise  
> enough in the way I've formulated my question.  (This is harder  
> than I thought!).
>
> I'm not concerned about whether users can be running concurrently.
>
> I'm concerned about whether separate users, using the machine at  
> different times, can rest assured that their data is secure against  
> the prying eyes of others who have access to the machine.
>
> One test-case is siblings in the same household.  Can Big Sis avoid  
> her love-letters being accessed by Kid Brother?
>
> Another, more relevant test-case is flatmates in the same  
> household. Can each flatmate establish their own relationships  
> with, for example, eBay and Amazon, confident that their profiles  
> (server-side) and cookies (client-side) won't be polluted by their  
> flatmates using the machine?
>
> Clearly this depends upon Big Sis and Flatulent Flatmate  
> religiously logging out every time they leave the machine.
>
> But if they do so, can they be confident that their profiles and  
> cookies are inviolate?
>
> I'm intentionally overlooking those with super-user privileges on  
> the device (or their equivalent in other-OS-speak), and seriously  
> smart operators who can fire up the disk-drive on a different  
> machine and extract whatever they want from it.
>
>
> At 16:06 +1000 4/9/06, Chris Maltby wrote:
>>>  Roger Clarke wrote:
>>>>  Can anyone nail for me the date and version of Windows that  
>>>> delivered
>>>>  the feature on end-user machines?
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 04, 2006 at 02:19:53PM +1000, Howard Lowndes wrote:
>>>  As far as I'm aware, they still don't.  You can get Remote Access,
>>>  Remote Assistance and Terminal Services, but it is hardly multiuser
>>>  ala Unix/Linux/OSX
>>
>> I'm with Howard on this. The standard end-user device has a single
>> active user session. That session can be remote when there isn't a
>> user using the keyboard/video/mouse. Or a remote assistant can share
>> your session if you permit it.
>>
>> You can have lots of inactive users, or get one of the server  
>> editions
>> which allow multiple active "terminal" sessions, but your MS PC is
>> still a "personal" computer.

--
Kim Holburn
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