On 10/13/05, Phil Boswell <phil.boswell(a)gmail.com> wrote:
"Anthony DiPierro" <wikispam(a)inbox.org> wrote:
[snip]
If sysadmins can do any destructive thing they
want, then you haven't
created a very secure system.
Pick the most secure version of UNIX you can find.
Log in as root.
Invoke the following:
$ rm -r /
If I were at home I'd do just that and it'd accomplish nothing, as I have
the immutable flag on the / directory. Yes, this flag could be removed if I
really wanted to, but there are ways to set up a system so that it requires
physical access to do such a thing.
But when we're talking about production boxes in a colo, it shouldn't even
be possible to log in as root.
How destructive do you actually want?
(I recall hearing a story of how somebody did this and, having interrupted
the process mid-destroy, managed with the help of some friends to
resurrect
the system because he happened to have a copy of EMACS running (i.e.
loaded
into memory and not susceptible to instant deletion) and was therefore
able
to type in various vital system files by reading the hex off another
terminal. I wish I could back it up with a URL, but it's the end of my
work
day here, and I'm going home :-)
--
Phil
[[en:User:Phil Boswell]]