Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ketch.cis.ohio-state.edu!martens From: martens@ketch.cis.ohio-state.edu (Jeff Martens) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Virus Protection ? Message-ID: <60786@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 14 Sep 89 23:37:41 GMT References: <1934.AA1934@americ> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: Jeff Martens Distribution: na Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 24 In article <1934.AA1934@americ> erk@americ.UUCP (Erick Parsons) writes: >Hmmm.. Seems to me that with a simple (?) OS mod we could have some sort >of Script Bit password protection as an option. I'm not a programmer so >I may be out in left field on this but the concept seems similiar to >one that is already used on Unix systems. If it were possible would this >stand up to these killer viruses ?? .... Just wondering.. Actually, this isn't easy on the Amiga. Unlike a typical multi-user system (e.g., Unix), all tasks on the Amiga run with the same privileges. If you know Unix, that's like saying that every process is effectively superuser. Under Unix, if the super user doesn't happen to know a password, he/she just bypasses the security. A smart virus on the Amiga can execute whatever instructions it wants to, and access whatever memory or disk locations it wants to, bypassing as much of the OS as necessary. Following your suggestion, though, the virus writer would have to be a little more clever, which is good for us, but chances are he already is, which is good for him. Darn. -=- -- Jeff (martens@cis.ohio-state.edu) Ever seen a sparrow stall?