The Anti-virus Times

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

A good recommendation indeed! Let's see how it can be followed and tested.

Create a test folder containing a file. An already existing folder containing documents can also be used.

Go to the -> Parental Control settings; select the user account we want to use and go to the Files and folders section.

By default, the feature is toggled off because no files or folders are being protected yet. Toggle it on.

The Files and folders dialogue pops up automatically. For now the list is empty; press the plus button, select the folder we want to protect, and press OK.

The default access mode is Read-Only. That's exactly what we need.

Now let's try to delete a file from the folder:

It works!

And now for a fly in the ointment. Modern operating systems allow for multiple user accounts. In principle, the responsibility for controlling access to a folder can be delegated fully to an anti-virus and for most users that will suffice. But sometimes it won't. That's why access permissions are set for specific users.

The situation seems simple: if only one person uses a particular computer, configure permissions for the administrator and for the user account this person works under, and voilà — everything's fine!

What about this TrustedInstaller that exists alongside our known administrator and user accounts?

Starting with Windows 7, new operating system accounts are available that have higher privileges than those of an administrator. This measure is meant to provide protection against the accidental or deliberate deletion of system files and folders. But in our situation it means accounts we normally don’t work with exist in the OS and an attacker can abuse them.