[OLPC Security] Securing the laptop: First pass for some basics.

[Simson Garfinkel]

To continue my posting...

> Tim Flavin wrote:
>
>> This program would run in several modes.  The beginner could use  
>> it to fix
>> problems get his laptop back in working order.  This would be the
>> equivalent of a
>> partial reload.  For more advanced students, it can flag the files  
>> and let
>> them decide what to do.
>> My basic aim is to be able to quickly see if the system is OK and  
>> give a
>> "FIX IT" button to inexperienced user.  (We may have a lot of them  
>> soon.)

It makes a lot of sense to consider "undo" and "redo" features.  
However, what is your model for how the laptop entered a broken  
configuration to begin with?
	-> If it was a hostile act, then the hostile software would surely  
have patched, broken, or deleted the backup copies.

My preferred way of fixing a laptop is to attach it to a known-good  
laptop using the "target" mode described in my previous message. Boot  
the broken laptop in target mode, connect with with a USB A -> USB A  
cable to a known good laptop, and have the known good laptop either:
	a. repair the disk
	b. reinstall the operating system.
	c. wipe the laptop and start over.


Something else from the post bothered me:
>
>> Good point.  I was hopeing that there would not be a lot of  
>> configuration
>> files. Hostname and password files would be special cases. Most of  
>> the other
>> files I can think of are .profile type files in /home/*.  We can  
>> back these
>> up and replace them with working default files and let the student
>> replace them with the backups. This program is mostly intended to  
>> help
>> people who don't edit a lot of files in /etc.


I realize that most of the people working at Laptop eat and breathe  
Unix, but do you really think that it's a good idea to have .profile  
files?  I think that it makes a of sense to do away with startup and  
configuration files as much as possible.