Can I make a 'Limited' account for safer web browsing?(Like I do in Windows?)

Ash2591 · 07-26-2011, 05:56 PM

I am a real Newbie to Puppy and to Linux in general. Can I make a 'Limited' account with a password for safer web browsing?(Like I always do in Windows?) I don't feel safe using my primary account with unlimited power to make changes to the system. I am booting from a USB flash drive into Puppy 5.2.5 on several PCs. I have extra space on the USB.

kbp · 07-26-2011, 06:16 PM

No reason why not ... just make sure the account isn't in any extra groups like wheel and that there's nothing stupid in /etc/sudoers like:

Code:

%users   ALL=(ALL)       NOPASSWD:       ALL

Ash2591 · 07-26-2011, 06:32 PM

Thank you kbp! Solved! Ash2591

jefro · 07-26-2011, 07:25 PM

No one should ever be logged on as a superuser for the most part. You in your daily use should be logged on as the lowest user. Your feeling about another person is misplaced. Your actions cause a bigger security hole.

TobiSGD · 07-26-2011, 07:31 PM

I wonder if that really works. Since Puppy is not a distribution with multi-user support you are always logged in as root. Does it really work to create a limited user and work with that on Puppy?

MTK358 · 07-26-2011, 07:57 PM

Unlike puppy, almost all other distros do everything from a limited account.

TobiSGD · 07-26-2011, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTK358

Unlike puppy, almost all other distros do everything from a limited account.

I know, but since the OP states that he is using Puppy, and Puppy does not support a multi-user setting, I wonder if that actually works as intended. If any one can give me some information on that I would really appreciate that.

jonyo · 07-28-2011, 08:56 AM

here's the latest that i'm aware of
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=69853

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtop...=546626#546626

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtop...=546698#546698

Quote:

Typically, we seem to betrying to invent a new way of handling multiple users on an OS that was designed to do that from the very beginning. The whole thing of running as root by default could have been implemeted very simply -with a quick edit of just a couple files.

Instead, since great effort was spent to create a root-only distro, by having to hack around on lots of things, we've made it very difficult to re-implement proper multi-user capability.

The proper thing to do here is to get rid of all the hacks and omissions which made puppy root-only in the first place. Then we'd have something which would be easily configurable to run as root-only, multi-user, as a proper server or whatever one wanted.

The idea that root and fido should share a home directory is absolutely preposterous.

Wu2wei · 07-28-2011, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Unlike puppy, almost all other distros do everything from a limited account.

Yes, but unlike all other distros Puppy can run on a frugal installation where you can have several (identical) pupsave files for different purposes. That way you get the security of a limited access and the convenience of working as root.

TobiSGD · 07-28-2011, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wu2wei

That way you get the security of a limited access

Can you explain that to me? If someone can access my system because of a browser exploit he has root rights on Puppy and user-rights on any other distro. How is that secure?

Ash2591 · 07-28-2011, 03:55 PM

Hi, I do appreciate all the ideas, but I am getting more confused! Like I said, I am a Puppy Newbie. Thanks, Ash

MTK358 · 07-28-2011, 04:28 PM

Especially as a newbie, maybe it would be better for you to switch to a more standard Linux distro?

TobiSGD · 07-28-2011, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTK358

Especially as a newbie, maybe it would be better for you to switch to a more standard Linux distro?

I second that, Puppy is a good distro, but I wouldn't recommend it for newbies.

kbp · 07-28-2011, 05:49 PM

OP: appologies for the misleading advice earlier, I didn't realise that Puppy went to such great lengths to operate as single user/root only. You'll probably be better off trying a different distro.

jonyo · 07-29-2011, 09:39 AM

funny, here is part of the puppy mission statement
http://puppylib.open-lib.net/puppy.html

Quote:

Puppy will be extremely friendly for Linux newbies

Puppy will have all the applications needed for daily use

Puppy will just work, no hassles