Arrrrgh, bleedin password

[eric halfabee]

Not really that p***ed of. Just a quick question.

This may have been asked before, but I couldn't find a similar post when i searched.

Why (or I may have overlooked this) do I have to keep entering my password to do things (launch certain apps or invoke certain tasks for example) when I have already logged in as Administrator with that same password? Should it not remember this and not ask me all the time? Is it a app thing, not the OS?

Anyone have an idea why? Its a tad anoying.


Cheers

Mr Halfabee

 

[Gwailo]

I assume that this happens only when installing, or modifying system preferences?

Some installers specify that you have to authenticate to install applications. You can authenticate as any administrator. You can authenticate as an administrator even if you're logged in as a normal user. It doesn't know or care whom you're logged in as, as long as you authenticate the installation--it doesn't know or care who's logged in to the console.

The reason for this, simply, is redundant security. Think of this scenario: you log in as admin, go away for a minute, and while you're gone someone installs a backdoor/trojan to control your system. Hey, Timbuktu is a good example!

Alternatively, someone has sent you an attachment in email, whatever. The installer runs and modifies system files, or adds daemons, etc... Left unchecked, that could be very dangerous.

I'd really like to make sure people don't do that to my system