From rick Sat Jul 13 10:26:47 2002
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 10:26:47 -0700
To: plug@lists.q-linux.com
Subject: Re: [plug] root user id.
User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.28i

Quoting Gideon N. Guillen (linuxman@flash.net.ph):

> Hehehe. That really is the problem with the LILO prompt. Anyway, if
> there's no way anyone can boot from any device other than the hard
> disk, well you can replace LILO with GRUB. Well, with the version of
> GRUB that came with Red Hat 7.3 (don't really know about other or
> older version, first time to use it), you can password protect the
> boot prompt just in case you want to do something not in the options
> you configured for GRUB. And don't worry about people snooping for the
> password in your GRUB's config file, cuz it's md5-hashed. hehehe.

Back around my fifth birthday, I got as a gift a "piggy bank" in the
form of a 6 inch steel cube, with a metal-and-plastic combination lock 
on the front door, resembling a toy rendition of a bank safe.  I still
have it, and keep in it my miscellaneous collection of currency from
countries around the world (basically, whatever change I still had in my
pockets from each country after I left).

This provides just about exactly as much security as password-protecting
the boot prompt, blocking floppy/CD-ROM booting in the BIOS,
password-protecting access to the BIOS, etc.  That is, an adult can
break into my piggy bank in about two minutes of twiddling with the
three-number combination lock.  Or, if he's particularly inept or has a
very low frustration tolerance, he could remove the door hinges or just
smash the door in with a hammer.  Or he could just carry the cube out of
my house entirely, and open it at his leisure.

(Ever drained a motherboard's CMOS to reset it?  Guess what happens to
your so-called "BIOS security"?)

It's kinda cute when a five-year-old thinks a 6" x 6" x 6" toy cube is
"secure" in any meaningful sense.  The analogy to, say, Kurt Seifried of
linuxsecurity.com is left as an exercise for the reader.

-- 
Cheers,            There are only 10 types of people in this world -- 
Rick Moen          those who understand binary arithmetic and those who don't.
rick@linuxmafia.com