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From: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: controlling printing access on an AppleShare network
Keywords: security, password protection
Message-ID: <2776@carthage.cs.swarthmore.edu>
Date: 28 Apr 89 14:19:25 GMT
References: <7452@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Reply-To: jackiw@carthage.UUCP (Nick Jackiw)
Organization: Visual Geometry Project, Swarthmore College, PA
Lines: 38

In article <7452@spool.cs.wisc.edu> engber@shorty.cs.wisc.edu (Mike Engber) writes:
> [** Password-protected Laserwriter Desire Expressed **]
> If no such software exists, how hard would it be to write a program that
> intercepts the call the the printer driver and prompts the user for a
> password. I'd be willing to take a hack at it using LSP or LSC.
> 
It shouldn't be that difficult, provided you have a server somewhere (a
Mac which could answer authorization-requests and actually log the
transaction). If you're running Appleshare, you could either have a
"controller," installed by an INIT, which could answer these questions,
or conceivably you could have the whole password-lookup and use-registration
aspect be carried out by your print-trap-patch (in which case the server
would just provide a database of passwords, quotas, etc.).

The problem with the second notion above is that the database would have
to be modifiable by the user (because it would be the user's job which
was logging the page usage), and thus the user could modify it to eliminate
his or her traces.

All of this assumes you have some way also of ensuring that the user's
print calls will BE patched by your security system.  If they boot from
a floppy, you're out of luck.  Ideally,  you'd want to add your patch
installer to all copies of your server-mounter init, so that people couldn't
get onto your system to begin with unless they accepted your patches.

Any scheme you come up with can probably be defeated
in far less time by an able programmer with ResEdit.  You'll have to
decide whether your user base is one of sufficient technical ignorance
to justify your efforts.

> -ME


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