64% of MS Vulnerabilities Mitigated by Removing Admin Rights
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 31st Mar 2010 14:41 UTC
Windows As geeks, we're well aware of the importance of running as a normal user instead of as root (UNIX/Linux/BSD) or administrator (Windows). However, while this should be common knowledge to anyone reading OSNews, it's often hard to illustrate just how important it is - until now, that is. A report by BeyondTrust looked at how many security bulletins issused by Microsoft are mitigated by simply... Not running as administrator.
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casuto
Member since:
2007-02-27

Microsoft has removed the admin rights since 2007 with Vista and UAC

Reply Score: 1

google_ninja Member since:
2006-02-05

if you are running vista, and see an "OK/Cancel" screen when you do something that needs elevation, you are running under the "Administrators" group.

If you see a "Username/Password" screen when you try to do something that needs elevation, you are running as a normal user (typically in the .\Users group)

Reply Parent Score: 2

dylansmrjones Member since:
2005-10-02

Wrong!

I'm running Windows Server 2008 (based on Vista SP 1) and is running as normal user (restricted user). Whenever I try to perform actions for which my user do not have the required rights a window will pop up asking for the Administrator password. Very much like su (or gtksu), but actually slightly more intelligently (I cannot believe I just wrote that).

Reply Parent Score: 3