OS X security questions

[appledu]

Hi all,

With my first Mac on the way, I have a few questions that I hope you can help me with:


- Is the OS X login screen secure with a password? I mean, there's no really simple hack to bypass the password, is there?

- Is there a script/program that allows the isight to take a snapshot when the password is wrongly entered, then save them to a file (with time and date) and possibly warn you that someone tried to login once you login properly.

- What options should I disable in order to not share anything over a local network (with Macs and PCs)?

- How safe is the guest account? You can't access user's files from it, I presume?

Thanks,

 

[GGJstudios]

• If someone gets their hands on your Mac, anything is possible, as far as hacking. But if you use a secure password, it will protect you against casual attempts to access your Mac.
• You can't have the iSight take a pic before someone logs in, because the OS isn't running fully until login occurs.
• You can go to System Preferences > Sharing to select what to share.
• Guest accounts can access many files.

 

[appledu]

Hi,

Thanks.

Is there a login log then, that lists all logins, with times and dates and stuff? I know you can do this on PCs.

So, Guest accounts can access private files? I'm surprised at that.

 

[GGJstudios]

So, Guest accounts can access private files? I'm surprised at that.

You asked if Guest accounts could access user's files... you didn't say which user. Someone logged in as Guest cannot view the other users' Documents folder, for example, but they can access their own user files, as well as other files on the Mac.

 

[McGiord]

You have many security features in MacOS X.

For each user that you want to add another layer of security you can activate the vault, in System Preferences Accounts, it will encrypt the whole user's home folder, be sure to remember your vault password because if you forget it, there is no way to recover it, so you will loose all your vaulted data if you try to change it without the right pasword.

Anyway, my suggestion for you is to setup one account for your day to day usage, and keep the administrator user as a different account, and by changing your login settings you can customize the login window.

The Guest account can't change much on the local hard drive, but all the volumes that you have connected to your mac could be accessible for that user unless you change the access privileges for the user/or different folders that you want to protect.

 

[McGiord]

Use the Finder Help to learn with more details about anything on your new Mac and the operating system.