Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: help
Message-ID: <6916@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 7 Apr 89 22:38:32 GMT
References: <3369@nunki.usc.edu> <11251@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 30

In article <3369@nunki.usc.edu>, anthonyt@castor.usc.edu (Anthony Tieu) writes:
> I am writing an init to keep users from writing on to the hard disk.
> I would like to know how to detect and obtain the last file or folder
> that was created, so I can delete it. Any comments is welcome..
 
In article <11251@well.UUCP> svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol) writes:
>	It seems to me that is the DEFINATELY the wrong approch to the problem!
>If I were doing this (which I am not, thank god) I would simply patch _Open
>and _Create so that if a appl tries to open a file it is returned ReadOnly and
>_Create always returns an error so no files are created.  You might be careful
>with these as this would mean that NOTHING could write to the disk (including
>the OS, Inits, DA's ,etc.)

Unless, of course, someone reboots from a floppy.  Any INIT based
approach to security is trivial to defeat unless you remove the floppy
drive from the Macintosh case.  (I think it will still boot then, as
long as there's something bootable on SCSI.)  There's a product whose
name I forget that password protects volumes by putting code in their
boot blocks -- that one requires more technical expertise and time to
defeat.

Anyone who would be put off by a security INIT would probably be
equally daunted by a little sign on the front saying that the CIA is
monitoring the computer and will assassinate anyone who tries to
change the disk.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim
"As I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of
 Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity.  I collected some of
 their Proverbs..." - Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"