How dangerous a Standard User could be to a FreeBSD box?

[N.J. Thomas]

* VeeJay <maanjee at gmail.com> [2007-01-10 13:24:22 +0100]:
> How dangerous a Standard User could be to a FreeBSD box?

Like another poster mentioned, it depends on a variety of factors. Three
things I can suggest to help you minimize security risks from local
users:

    - keep your machine and software packages updated

    - have policies and procedures in place detailing an Acceptable Use
      Policy (AUP) and the consequences of violating them; and use it
      when you have to (a lot of places have a ton of elaborate and
      well-written AUPs which are never enforced)

    - keep your user "shell" machines completely separate from your
      other servers (web, imap, et al.), separate boxes, separate subnet,
      separate passwords, etc.;

      this should be obvious, but a lot of people run a lot of critical
      services on the same machines that they allow users access to and
      then they are surprised when a fork bomb takes down their mail
      infrastructure

hth,
Thomas

-- 
N.J. Thomas
njt at ayvali.org
Etiamsi occiderit me, in ipso sperabo