Guest Account vulnerable?

[koe]

Hey there,

do you know if using the guest account in mac os x is really safe? I prefer using it for everyday surfing, supposing my mac is clean after restart.

My question is if I am really out of trouble by switching off my mac out of the guest account and thereby deleting all files. Could it happen that - say I visit malicious and infringed websites (facebook?) - cookies, trojans, etc might remain on the system?

Thank you for any hint. I haven't found any information on google yet.

 

[GGJstudios]

do you know if using the guest account in mac os x is really safe? I prefer using it for everyday surfing, supposing my mac is clean after restart.

My question is if I am really out of trouble by switching off my mac out of the guest account and thereby deleting all files. Could it happen that - say I visit malicious and infringed websites (facebook?) - cookies, trojans, etc might remain on the system?

There is no need to use the guest account for everyday use. You can't infect your Mac by visiting websites or opening email attachments. The only way to infect Mac OS X is to actively install an infected app. You don't need any 3rd party antivirus app to keep your Mac malware-free. Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released 10 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided with some basic education, common sense and care in what software you install. Also, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion have anti-malware protection built in, further reducing the need for 3rd party antivirus apps.

Mac Virus/Malware Info​

 

[koe]

Thank you for your fast reply regarding malware. However, I wonder about things like data-mining on my disk. Think about cookies and flash cookies - will they all disperse for sure after restart?

 

[GGJstudios]

Thank you for your fast reply regarding malware. However, I wonder about things like data-mining on my disk. Think about cookies and flash cookies - will they all disperse for sure after restart?

You don't have to restart to clear cookies. You can reset Safari, clearing cache, cookies, history and anything else you want. For Flash cookies, you can go to ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/ and lock the folders indicated (your folder names may vary), and Flash cookies will never be stored, so you'll never have to clear them.

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[Weaselboy]

Thank you for your fast reply regarding malware. However, I wonder about things like data-mining on my disk. Think about cookies and flash cookies - will they all disperse for sure after restart?

Yes. When you logout of the Guest account everything gets deleted.