*BSD News Article 24715


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From: hedrick@farside.rutgers.edu (Charles Hedrick)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: Security question
Message-ID: <Dec.5.14.56.34.1993.4060@farside.rutgers.edu>
Date: 5 Dec 93 19:56:35 GMT
References: <2dodgn$s9s@bigboote.WPI.EDU> <1993Dec4.065700.11472@news.csuohio.edu>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 12

stever@csuohio.edu (Steve Ratliff) writes:

>	Basically, with the PC architecture you can't win.  Even if you
>could prevent single user booting somebody could boot off a floppy and
>do whatever they like.

This depends upon your system.  There are systems with BIOS options
that let you disable booting from the floppy, and install a password
to prevent further BIOS-level access.  I'm sure someone who can
disassemble the machine can find a way around that, so it's probably
not complete protection.  But it might be good enough for some
purposes.