Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jb3o+
From: jb3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jon Allen Boone)
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: Possibly nefarious users
Message-ID: <EcIfvZC00j69Q5j2RK@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 9 Jun 91 23:51:01 GMT
References: <2D.-_.N@cs.widener.edu> <1991Jun6.214915.18946@athena.mit.edu>,
	<1991Jun7.164102.672@progress.com>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 44
In-Reply-To: <1991Jun7.164102.672@progress.com>

matth@progress.COM (Matthew J. Harper) writes:
> This is indeed a no-no. Not a whole lot is being done about it legally at the
> moment, but a few cases have come to trial and the accused have been found
> guilty of actions such as this.  (Randomly banging on machines to try and
> gain access.)

  These cases, I would assume, are mainly people who were trying to
access machines without guest accounts and a password of guest. (isn't
that the standard?)  In the case of user: guest passwd: guest, I'd say
that the access was pretty much up to whomever wanted to use it.  Now
if they had a user: guest and password setup to specifically limit
access, then that would be more in line with the trials I imagine you
describing.

> Just because a guest account exists does not mean that it is there for all in
> the world to log in and look around!  Perhaps if we looked at a different 
> situation from the same outlook:

  Depends - see above.

>   If you leave your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition, does this give
> anyone who walks by the right to take it for a spin?  Even if they return it
> where they found it, nobody saw them do it, and there is really no proof that
> they were there?
> 
>   I think anyone would be pretty pissed if this happened.
> 
>   Is there really a difference?

    Yes.  By using your car, they are preventing you from doing the
same.  By using your guest account, however, they, in most situations,
will not be depriving you of resources.  Also, they may well damage
your car by driving (a well-built, quality car still has the
possiblity of the user breaking it); your guest account, if correctly
installed, would not have the ability to damage the system.  These
seem like two important distinctions to me.

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