What kind of security does an ST compatible have?

[+Gemintronic]

One issue I had with MorphOS is that there was no full disk encryption and no passwords for user accounts. Is there any security features or software for Atari ST compatible systems? Something like FireBee seems nice but security through obscurity only goes so far.

[Christos]

It depends, if you are running MiNT, on the ext2 partition, you can experience similar level of security as you would have on your average linux distro a few years ago. However, everything under TOS, or under a TOS partition will run with the same level of security provided by the obscurity of the system. Also, everything you run from TOS is by default run by root (if I understand it correctly).

I think the best place to ask this question would be the MiNT mailing list.

[AstFan]

One issue I had with MorphOS is that there was no full disk encryption and no passwords for user accounts. Is there any security features or software for Atari ST compatible systems? Something like FireBee seems nice but security through obscurity only goes so far.

 

Encrypting data on hard disk would result with much slower work. Although, maybe Satandisk users would be harmed not too much. Instead 130KB/sec some 90KB/sec is not so tragic

[+DarkLord]

One issue I had with MorphOS is that there was no full disk encryption and no passwords for user accounts. Is there any security features or software for Atari ST compatible systems? Something like FireBee seems nice but security through obscurity only goes so far.

 

As previously mentioned - MINT will function just like a Linux distro,

with the usual user/password logon and permessions associated therewith.

 

Under single TOS, there used to be a small ACC that would lock up the

system until you entered a password. Just a deterrent though, as you

could easily bypass it, if they were an experienced Atari ST user.

[Christos]

It's not so simple though. You can't actually login in any other way but as root. And although you can run console apps as another user, this isn't true for anything GEM. I guess it would be possible to have a miniscule gem partition and everything else to be on the ext2 but you'll still need to have root priviledges and that's probably the biggest security risk. TOS is an insecure system, much like MSDOS was. I guess it would be possible to enable some basic passwords and stuff...

 

@theloon: This is a most interesting question you asked. I'll look more into it and probably publish an article in the next lowres. Thanks.

[+DarkLord]

It's not so simple though. You can't actually login in any other way but as root. And although you can run console apps as another user, this isn't true for anything GEM. I guess it would be possible to have a miniscule gem partition and everything else to be on the ext2 but you'll still need to have root priviledges and that's probably the biggest security risk. TOS is an insecure system, much like MSDOS was. I guess it would be possible to enable some basic passwords and stuff...

 

@theloon: This is a most interesting question you asked. I'll look more into it and probably publish an article in the next lowres. Thanks.

 

Has it changed then? I could have sworn, through my foggy memory, that users could

be setup as well as root.

 

Oh well....

[Christos]

Yes they can... but login in is from a user with root priviledges. You can't get to the AES any other way.