Manual Startup Items?

[michaelrjohnson]

Our new computer labs at my college (UW-Stevens Point) just upgraded to OS X (thankfully). They have been in the process of "locking down" the OS, so when any user logs in, they dont' have access to certain preference panes (file sharing, network, etc.). I configured my startup items just before they locked out my "Accounts" pane. However, some of my friends now want to set up startup items, but they don't have access to the "Account" pane.

So my question is: is there a way to manually set up startup items? (i.e. by placing a "StartupItems" folder in Library, etc.)

Thanks!

 

[pncc]

Not that I am aware of. that is the point of 'locking out' the account and removing access to the Accounts pane. If it were possible, that would be a HUGE security breach.

 

[rand()]

If it were possible, that would be a HUGE security breach.

That's not necessarily true; it depends on the implementation. For example, you could (or Apple could, hint hint) set it up so that the user in question could only start programs they have the authority to run (set under the Users pref pane also) on startup (gee, that makes sense). Then it would only be a security breach if one of those programs themselves were insecure; or if a newly installed program defaulted to "Everybody can run this" - that is, activated its checkbox in each user's set - it could also present a danger.

Obviously, such a setup would have to lock out modification of all other users, as well as modification of "Ability to Admin..." etc. to be truly secure. Essentially, the Users pref pane would only allow you to change your password, and modify StartupItems.

I agree, though, that if the user could create an arbritrary shell script and place it in /~/Library/StartupItems that it could be *extremely* dangerous.

It would also be nice if Apple would add the ability to individually mark which Pref Panes a user can access. Seriously. Y'guys.

-rand()