3 ms·

I do agree that the OS "should" not allow access but it has to because otherwise you would not be able to modify it.

by aw3c2 16y ago

seabee 16y ago
Exactly - how else would you install Grub otherwise? :)
- jacquesm 16y ago
  An installer or a program running at installation time as the super user has different permissions than just any old application. Think about it, if an application can write to the boot area then you've got a giant hole in your security.
  - seabee 16y ago
    Right, but how do you do disk imaging (for example) if the OS doesn't give you access to the entire drive? The OS could say "OK, you can modify any drive's boot area but the one I'm on", but that doesn't help if you're booting from another drive and using chainloading. Hell, you can flash motherboards from an OS... writing to the boot area is just one example of many 'giant holes in your security'.
  - woodall 16y ago
    This gapping hole has actually been used to target TrueCrypt. http://www.stoned-bootkit.info/ http://www.stoned-bootkit.info/ http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Bootkit-bypasses-hard-disk-encryption-742721.html http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Bootkit-bypasses-... http://www.anti-forensics.com/modify-truecrypt-encryption-boot-loader-strings http://www.anti-forensics.com/modify-truecrypt-encryption-bo...
rbanffy 16y ago
No OS can block users with administrative privileges from completely destroying their environments. That said, no application without a very high level of trust (perhaps above what an Administrator can do on Windows) should be able to write outside the filesystem. This should, at the very least, pop-up some "Program X is about to do something remarkably stupid. Allow or deny?" dialog.
- j_baker 16y ago
  I'd be suprised if windows didn't show such a dialog. The user probably just ignored it because they see such dialogs all the time.
  - Raphael_Amiard 16y ago
    Be surprised then. This thing happened to me (on windows 7). I'm very wary about what kind of dialog i click on to, and never saw a warning which would seem related to that.

I do agree that the OS "should" not allow access but it has to because otherwise you would not be able to modify it.

by aw3c2 16y ago

I do agree that the OS "should" not allow access but it has to because otherwise you would not be able to modify it.

seabee 16y ago

Exactly - how else would you install Grub otherwise? :)

jacquesm 16y ago
An installer or a program running at installation time as the super user has different permissions than just any old application. Think about it, if an application can write to the boot area then you've got a giant hole in your security.
- seabee 16y ago
  Right, but how do you do disk imaging (for example) if the OS doesn't give you access to the entire drive? The OS could say "OK, you can modify any drive's boot area but the one I'm on", but that doesn't help if you're booting from another drive and using chainloading. Hell, you can flash motherboards from an OS... writing to the boot area is just one example of many 'giant holes in your security'.
- woodall 16y ago
  This gapping hole has actually been used to target TrueCrypt. http://www.stoned-bootkit.info/ http://www.stoned-bootkit.info/ http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Bootkit-bypasses-hard-disk-encryption-742721.html http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Bootkit-bypasses-... http://www.anti-forensics.com/modify-truecrypt-encryption-boot-loader-strings http://www.anti-forensics.com/modify-truecrypt-encryption-bo...

rbanffy 16y ago

No OS can block users with administrative privileges from completely destroying their environments. That said, no application without a very high level of trust (perhaps above what an Administrator can do on Windows) should be able to write outside the filesystem. This should, at the very least, pop-up some "Program X is about to do something remarkably stupid. Allow or deny?" dialog.

j_baker 16y ago
I'd be suprised if windows didn't show such a dialog. The user probably just ignored it because they see such dialogs all the time.
- Raphael_Amiard 16y ago
  Be surprised then. This thing happened to me (on windows 7). I'm very wary about what kind of dialog i click on to, and never saw a warning which would seem related to that.