[Ti] FW: TiBook 1GHz/SuperDrive US Mac OS ROM file?

[Dennis Fazio]

--On Sunday, December 29, 2002 09:18 AM -0800 Steve Wozniak <steve at woz.org> 
wrote:

>
> If someone boots up my TiBook with their own OS X firewire drive
> (configured with them as admin or root), do they have access to the files
> on my HD? --

Yes, if they log in as root. File permission checking is not done for the 
root user. They may have trouble as admin, since I've found that an admin 
user on one system does not always have access to the files of another OS X 
installation on a different volume.

But doesn't that require that they already have access to a running system 
on the machine so they can change the boot volume.

I believe all access can only be blocked by setting a firmware password on 
the machine which prevents booting from any device without entering the 
password first.

As for real security though, it depends upon what you are trying to protect 
against. If it's the casual thief who wants the computer, it doesn't matter 
what security you have. They just want the hardware and will only wipe your 
disk anyway.

If you're trying to protect your data from theft, a firmware password will 
provide some impediment, but as stated before, once they have physical 
access, they can just remove your disk to another machine. You will have to 
encrypt all your key files all the time to protect against that.

But, I suspect very, very few of us are in such a position where there are 
people out there interested in breaking the law and expending considerable 
resources to see our files. If you have such important data (nuclear 
weapons launch codes, critical corporate trade secrets, love letters to a 
mistress), it should never be kept on a portable computer to begin with. 
Keep it on a small pocket firewire drive or one of those new USB memory 
gizmos that's always in a strong safe or chained to your wrist when not in 
use.
--
Dennis Fazio
dfz at mac.com