Question

potentially bad security

Asked by: dr_binks

I think the answer is obvious here, but I just want a few opinions.

the company I work for is still in its youth, it has only been trading for about 1.5 years. Before the company was set up properly, it was being run by a single lady and her computer. A few months after the company was established properly with its own proprty and emplyees I was asked to set up an  internal Active Directory network (which I have done)

howeverthe lady that ran the company originally has to have her own computer (that she has been usign for years) on the network.. but because she has been using it for a while she has programs such as paradox which has modules installed that apparently are discontinued now. So that means although she is on the network I cannot join (or register) her computer  with the PDC (becase from what I know it will essentially create an account that she will use but it wont have her stuff on it).

now im assuming that this is a very bad (in a security) sense setup.. because she is on the network and her machine is not locked down like all the others.

how bad could this set up be? could somthing happen to her machine that could compromise the rest of the network?

all the clients (win xp pro) are protected with Norton Corprate 9 (whic we are using because the licences are very cheap) and the servers are protected with F-Secure 5.. the whole network is protected with smoothwall.

Sorry to waffle on, just thought id give as much info as possible

what are your opinions?

~Binks

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Asked On
2005-03-22 at 08:57:09ID21360355
Tags

computers

Topics

Windows Network Security

,

MS Forefront-ISA

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: jchambers69Posted on 2005-03-22 at 09:09:01ID: 13603247

Joining her computer to the network shouldn't be a problem. And if she is worried about losing all of settings, that isn't a problem too.

Once you join the network (which should be done), have her log on with her network logon. Then log off. Then log in as an administrator. Right click my computer and select properties. Then select the "advanced" tab. Then click the "settings" buton in the user profile section.  Then select her local manchine user account "<machine name>\username" and click the copy to button. In the next window browse out to where the domain profile is kept, usually "c:\documents and settings\username<.domain>"  The click the ok button. This will copy of the settings and files to her domian account.

 

by: PeteLongPosted on 2005-03-22 at 09:10:17ID: 13603259

>>how bad could this set up be? could somthing happen to her machine that could compromise the rest of the network?

Depends on how good her "housekeeping" is

Ask her how often she updates her Antivirus ask to see the version of the scanning engine and antivirus definitions to be sure

Ask her how often she applies security patches and service packs - check to see what level the machine is patched to

If you want to apply some pressure put on <ad-aware> and run it, Ill bet my soul it will find a ton of nasty things - show it to her to demonstrate how dangerous her PC is

This machine is behind your firewall! if its compromised then your machines will be infected/attacked from within - get a developer to look at migrating her Paradox stuff to Excell or Access as appropiate, the IT industry is dragging its backside through the mire simply cause there are users who cannot get rid of 10 year old spreadsheet applications etc  - which is to be honest - bollox - excuse my language but lazyness on a users part to not remain IT literate is not the fault of the sysadmin tryin to protect their network (thought you might want to be a little more subtle than that ;)

 

by: dr_binksPosted on 2005-03-22 at 09:21:18ID: 13603374

PeteLong:

>> excuse my language but lazyness on a users part to not remain IT literate is not the fault of the sysadmin tryin to protect their network (thought you might want to be a little more subtle than that ;)

hehe :)

well the anti virus updates I dont really monitor.. however when it comes to windows patches I personally update all the computers together.

Also as far as migrating from Paradox to another app or even to a custom app, we had a developer in ages ago, he did just that.. but I think shes rather attached to paradox so she simply said she hated what he did and binned it.

jchambers69:

are you sure that will work, when I replaced the PDC and rejoined all the computers I tried to copy the old profile over to the new profile on the Sage machine.. but the program didnt like that; instantly denying eveyone access to the finances database.

~Binks

 

by: PeteLongPosted on 2005-03-22 at 09:37:49ID: 13603542

>>I personally update all the computers together.

Look at WUS to update your domain and this "Stand alone Machine"

>> shes rather attached to paradox so she simply said she hated what he did and binned it.

sorry but the problem is not technical its "cultural" put it simply - the application is donkeys old - YOU WILL NOT SUPPORT IT if its mission critical data how would she feel it it was lost and unrecoverable would she be happy with this?

jchambers69 is correct that a good peice of advice - however your dealing with some old apps here (paradox version 8 I took out of service five years ago and it was old then!!) a lot of these apps are not "profile aware"and fall over if you try to monkey with their settings for simple reasons like the temp directory is profile specifiic etc..

 

by: luv2smilePosted on 2005-03-22 at 10:02:03ID: 13603777

By the way, WUS is now called WSUS....sorry, just had to throw that in...how many times is Microsoft going to change the name? LOL

"Tuesday March 22! The Release Candidate of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), formerly Windows Update Services (WUS)..."

 

by: PeteLongPosted on 2005-03-22 at 10:32:54ID: 13604186

LOL cheers luv2smile Im to slow these days :)

 

by: jchambers69Posted on 2005-03-22 at 11:03:54ID: 13604527

Hey, some apps just don't like to die. Then again some new ones need to go.

As for the profile, you may have to edit some ini files to get the program to point to the proper temp folders. but everything else should be fine.

 

by: trywaredkPosted on 2005-03-22 at 11:24:17ID: 13604711

About copying user profiles, don't ever use explorer to copy c:\documents and settings\xxx to c:\documents and settings\yyy

The reason is, that a userprofile consist of two things:
1. Files in c:\documents and settings\xyz
2. Registry-settings in HKEY_USERS

Don't ever copy the registry-settings yourself, it's all explaned in:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/deploy/confeat/09w2kadb.mspx

In my opnion, the only right thing for you to do, is to purchase a heavy new streamlined computer to "the lady", and configure it like the rest of your company-computers.

Then install paradox and anyting else she's got on her old computer, and let her login to the domain on it.

Many Regards

Jorgen Malmgren
IT-supervisor
Denmark

:o) Your brain is like a parachute. It works best when it's open

 

by: PeteLongPosted on 2005-03-22 at 12:24:39ID: 13605219

hey Jorgen Where you been :)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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