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Re: About the login shell



Marcus Brinkmann <Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de> writes:

> Well, because if you need a secure console (eg, if the computer is
> accessible in public), you need to take a lot of extra steps anyway
> to secure the machine: You need to set a BIOS and GRUB password, for
> example.

Of course!  Don't get me wrong, I don't want to convert the Debian
GNU/Hurd distribution into an ultra-paranoid-system with zero security
holes in the default installation since n years.

Let me describe my view like this: when I ask a company to build a
house for me, I simply expect the doors to have locks, to offer at
least some kind of protection.  I know, that this protection is not
enough to have a really secure house, but there is simply no reason to
build a house without locks.  Locks are the normal case, I don't have
to say "Oh, please, don't forget to install some locks!".

As far as I understand you, you as the house-building-company are
telling me "We never install locks, because the people have to secure
their houses anyway, so they can install their locks themselves.".

> So, it would make remote access more secure without inconveniencing
> the local access.

What exactly do you mean with "inconveniencing"?  I mean, I use the
login shell for exactly one purpose: to type "login".  When I want to
work with the system, I login, of course.  Then I have my real working
environment, which is way more convenient then being the user number
-1 in the system.  Therefore a login prompt is for me even more
convenient, since I don't have to type "login"...

		moritz
-- 
moritz@duesseldorf.ccc.de - http://duesseldorf.ccc.de/~moritz/
GPG fingerprint = 3A14 3923 15BE FD57 FC06  B501 0841 2D7B 6F98 4199



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