kick in the monad

June 14, 2005 under Computers, Software

According to this THG article, Microsoft will finally be killing off the DOS command-line in Longhorn and replacing it with something codenamed Monad. I think this is a good thing and am fond of the “3 mode” setup. The DOS style will make the transition to Monad a bit easier. The shell scripting similar to bash brings things up to par with the UNIX world. And the scripting ability will be awesome since it’ll be built-in and dynamic languages like Python and Perl are very popular right now. I can see plenty of new avenues for automation opening up with this, since I’d assume it would have even more hooks to the OS than what’s currently available from existing scripting languages like Python and VBS (with WMI).

However, some people think it’ll be yet another source for exploitability; especially the guy who wrote this article. On a side note, the guy says “As currently designed, Monad allows administrators to use commands to list and shut down any process running on a Windows system…” and “None of those features are available using cmd.exe”. Perhaps he’s not aware that tasklist.exe displays running processes, and what that says about his technical abilities, I don’t know? Anyway, I don’t see Monad being the source of all of this security breaching. IMHO, the main problem with Windows that has existed since the beginning is the insistance that users always be logged in with root (read: administrative) privilages. I blame this for the reason that there are so many zombie computers passing along every worm, trojan and virus released into the wild. But you should also add the fact that most people don’t use antivirus software (and if they do, it’s outdated), rarely if ever install software patches, and use IE to browse the Web. OSs of the UNIX variety (including Linux and Mac OS X) push the idea of using root to only install apps or make changes that should be system-wide. If a user does something bad to their account, it doesn’t compromise or bring the system down. And sure you can setup limited accounts on Windows now, but how many people actually do (rhetorical question alert!)? And what about the apps that weren’t designed with multi-users in mind and exhibit weird behaviour when run from a limited account?

Maybe Microsoft has finally gotten the hint. Apparently IE7 will by default run in a mode that disallows the installation of software through the browser. This is a a good start. If they implemented an idea like this throughout the entire OS, things would be even better. Perhaps all user accounts should be limited, with the exception of one administrator account that is somewhat hidden. If a user wants to install something, a mode similar to SU in UNIX kicks in (after much prompting) and immediately shuts down when the installation is complete. Maybe software should be installed in a per-user manner. It would be a pain but alleviate the need to install anything system-wide. Perhaps the the problem with Windows is its wide user-base that runs the spectrum from hackers and power-users to n00bs. The UNIX-like OSs tend to attract the tech-savy people who consider security. That’s not to say a n00b couldn’t bring a UNIX system down if they were logged in as root. But Microsoft‘s Windows development team have a big and old code base to work from which may or may not be condusive to large-scale changes like that. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens next.

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One Response to "kick in the monad"



Pings responses :

  • […] Last summer, I posted a couple of entries relating to the upcoming Windows Vista that were a brief daydream from a developer’s point of view and musings on the possible inclusion of a more-verstile command-line interface. Then I tore it all down by espousing Mac OX X. Finally, we’re getting more and more details about Vista everyday and I’m actually pleased with what I’m reading/hearing/seeing. […]

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