Admin user

[Peter Korsten]

Op 30-6-2011 23:04, K9 Kai Niggemann schreef:

> I am told over and over not to work as an Admin-enabled user in Mac OS X, for security reasons.

Correct.

> What strikes me as odd is that very often when I want to install a program, it asks me to enter an admin password (even Ableton Live does it, when installing the trial version).

Well, the thing is, you have to have administrative privileges to 
install software. In Windows 7, for example, you can be an 
administrator, and as soon as something security-related crops up, you 
get a dialogue box asking you whether this is something you really want.

> So in that moment, I am giving the installer admin privileges, no matter what kind of user I am logged in as.

Hmm, that should only be available to some users, being able to do 
certain stuff as an administrator.

> so what's better about not working as an admin user?

You should not work as admin ALL THE TIME. Sometimes, you need to do 
things as the super-user. But imagine the following:

rm -rf /

If you do that as user 'kai', you remove all files on the system that 
belong to 'kai'. This is a major bugger, but if you do it as root, you 
wipe the entire system.

Similarly, if you run a program that has a virus or trojan horse, it's 
one thing if you do it as a normal user, but a lot more serious if you 
do it as the super-user.

Bottom line: you can and you will do a lot more damage as the super-user.

> I understand that "Admin" is something different from "root" that needs to be enabled separately?

Pretty much the same thing if you ask me, although it could be that 
Apple have added some extra layer.

> Where is a link that explains account-security to a Mac user?

There's an oxymoron somewhere in that sentence. ;)

- Peter