new user, puzzled about Admin. Acct./security

[V_W]

I have been using my first Mac (OS X Panther) for 6 mos. now. Getting a good feel for how things work, how to get around.

Understand one cannot do much (anything?) to the "system" unless using Admin. Acct.

Would it be correct to say a hacker/malicious site cannot do anything harmful to the system if I am not using Admin Acct. when browsing?

[nicentral]

By running any system as a "normal" user you simply reduce your risk. There isn't any way other than disconnecting from the Internet to completely protect your system from malware.

OS X is based on FreeBSD, a UNIX-like OS. There are ways that apps can run using sudo which can give admin rights. So, even though you aren't logged in as an admin there are ways that your system could be compromised. I wouldn't worry about it though. As of yet, there aren't that many attacks targeted to the Mac.

[V_W]

Thanks. Took awhile for me to become aware of that as a poss. strategy. Read it somewhere, but it was more implied than stated. On this forum board I read warnings to not browse under Admin., but no reason why given.

Part 2. If I set up another acct to use, will I be able to transfer all my files to new acct? Will there be problems with permissions?

[yellow]

Part 2. If I set up another acct to use, will I be able to transfer all my files to new acct? Will there be problems with permissions?

I don't really think that there's a problem browsing as an admin user. Anything that wants to be installed from browsing will ask you for an admin password (except Dashboard widgets, which is a bug and will be fixed soon). Use your head when downloading, and you should be OK.

Yes you can transfer your data. Yes there will be problems with permissions, but they are easily solvable. Post back if you're interested in how to do it easily.

[V_W]

Yes you can transfer your data. Yes there will be problems with permissions, but they are easily solvable. Post back if you're interested in how to do it easily.

I am VERY intersted.

[yellow]

What you will need ahead of time:

1) The new user's short user name.
2) The ld user's short name.
3) root enabled [Netinfo Manager -> Security pull-down menu -> Enable Root User (give it a VERY good password)]

Create the new user.
Log out of current user
Log in as root
Open /Users/oldusershortname
Drag & drop everything to /Users/newusershortname
Open Terminal (everything you type is case sensitive, make sure to get it correct)
Type in: chown -R newusershortname:admin /Users/newusershortname
Press Return key
Type in: chmod -R ug+wrX /Users/newusershortname
Press Return key
Log out of root
Log in as old admin user (none of your files will be there, so it will be as if it was a competely new user, the Dock will be set back to the defaults)
Open Netinfo Manager -> Security pull-down menu -> Disable Root User
Log out of old admin user
Log in as new user

[V_W]

Thanks again.

I think I'm going to like it here.

[yellow]

2) The ld user's short name.

This should be "old" not "ld". Unfortunately, I cannot edit it.