[ale] disable ctrl-alt-del

Lex Spoon lex at cc.gatech.edu
Wed Aug 20 19:17:21 EDT 1997


> 
> Yea,
> 
> take a look /etc/inittab.  I had mine displaying "You have no right to shutdown
> this system" then I would receive e-mail that someone tried ctrl-atl-del.
> 


Couldn't people just cut the power?  If they can't push the power
button, can they pull the power plug?  Can they pull a breaker down
the hall?

It's really hard to secure a system that untrusted parties use at the
console; the methods required involve things like putting the machine
in an iron safe.

A rule of thumb I like to keep in mind: if they really want to hurt
you, they could pulverise the moniter.  So the fact that you are
allowing someone to actually touch a computer, means that you already
give them some definite trust.



Security *is* important.  But,

    1) It comes in degrees.  There is no perfectly secure system.  One
       needs to consider just how much security is appropriate
       for each situation.

    2) A lot of measures seem reasonable at first, but they don't
       stop truly malicious people.  Such measures make life harder
       for the good guys and don't really stop the bad guys.

       For example, what good is a password system, if you can edit
       the INI files and bypass it?  What good is a password system,
       if the passwords are all set to the last 4 digits of
       users' social security numbers?  (especially if a user
       database that has SS numbers is stored in a low security
       place)

 
To get back to the thread, while disabling Ctrl-Alt-Delete may be a
nice thing to do (so that you don't do it by accident, for instance),
it doesn't really stop anyone who really wants to shut down the
computer.

Finally, hack value alone is of course plenty reason to do something
on your own computer :)



Sincerely,

Lex Spoon






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