Folder permissions and ubuntu

[Guest]

i have a question about folder access permissions, to make a folder private i removed evryone but myself and system from permissions list and made myself the owner. now if i access with another win 7 OS it asks me to take ownership. should I rely on folder owner to change as a proof if someone else successfuly peeks inside? what if someone accesses it with ubuntu, will he be able to access everything without a trace in that folder's permissions?

 

[Ijack]

what if someone accesses it with ubuntu, will he be able to access everything without a trace in that folder's permissions?

The simple answer is "Yes". If someone has physical access to your computer there is little that you can do to protect the file system other than encrypting it.

 

[Guest]

you mean one can access the folder contents without altering the permissions/ownership? I was expecting anyone wanting access will need to alter ownership/permissions of the folder which will lead to me denied its access thru my windows and to use it as an indication.

some more info will be greatly appreciated

 

[cassandraf_winteam]

For maximum security of your folder, you may want to consider encrypting the folder / file. To do so:
- Right-click the folder or file you want to encrypt, and then click Properties.
- Click the General tab, and then click Advanced.
- Select the Encrypt contents to secure data check box, click OK, and then click OK again.
Encrypting is the most secure way to make sure others cannot see the contents that you wish to hide. Before encrypting your files, have a quick read through this - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/When-should-I-encrypt-files-and-folders

Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Cassandra
Microsoft Windows Outreach

 

[Ijack]

The security functions of Windows only work when the files are accessed by Windows software. Access them in some other way, e.g. Linux, and there is no security on the files. Encryption is different and would protect the files.

 

[Guest]

guys I am getting really pissed here! after spending hours doing search I found nothing discussing the folder permissions of one OS in another or OS proof locking. I am not going for encryption as it still allows to view the contents, I want to restrict everyone at the folder itself. another option I explored is of bitlocker but it wont budge without tpm and 100mb partition (which I intentionaly didnt create by formating via XP setup). So now its upto you guys to help me out with a way to password lock the folder or my HD itself and that it work against ubuntu/any OS access.

 

[Ijack]

guys I am getting really pissed here! after spending hours doing search I found nothing discussing the folder permissions of one OS in another or OS proof locking.

The reason that you found nothing is because it can't be done. Windows security is a function of the OS and is completely bypassed when using another OS.

I am not going for encryption as it still allows to view the contents, I want to restrict everyone at the folder itself.

I think you must be confused about what encryption does. Another user, even an Administrator or a user of another OS, wouldn't be able to view your encrypted files unless they had access to your encryption key. Encryption gives you what you want.

So now its up to you guys to help me out with a way to password lock the folder or my HD itself and that it work against ubuntu/any OS access.

Fogive me if I sound rude, but nothing is "up to us". We have no obligation to provide you with a solution, or even to answer your query. Don't be ungrateful because those answers that you do get aren't the ones you want to hear. I don't want to continue to beat my head against a brick wall, so I'll bow out of the discussion at this point.

 

[znegval]

I agree with ijack. You are basically describing a problem which the best and only solution is encryption, and yet you refuse to use it. How can you say someone can view the contents of an encrypted file? If you do it properly probably not even the government will be able to read them.

Just give up. If you don't encrypt files they will be easily accessed by anyone with physical access to your computer. The goddamn bits are written on the disk for christ sake, all it takes is to ask the drive to read that specific area where your file is stored.

 

[Guest]

sorry if I annoyed you guys and ijack. I wasnt addressing my frustration to you people or this forum..actually I got fedup of searching through various sites and forums for a solution and its kind of irritating there are so many utilities like folder lock etc making big claims out there and none mentions of the inter OS risk neither is it clearly written on a single place that win permissions are windows limited. It then also annoys coming to realise after months that a nosy co-user likely be using ubuntu only to sneak into my personal folders all the while.

another cause of confusion, I asked same in another forum a while back and got a slightly different answer:

"" If you have restricted access to some files and folders by manually editing permissions, then it's possible that access will be denied by the second Windows and the only possibility to access the files would be by taking ownership, which you can do by logging in as an administrator.

Similarly, Ubuntu will be able to edit NTFS permissions. The permissions themselves are not part of the registry, so whatever Ubuntu does will stay with the files. But by taking ownership in Ubuntu, you will deny yourself future access in Windows.""

""Well, if others are using different OSs on the same machine, then there is nothing you can do to prevent them from viewing your files, except for encrypting, for example using BitLocker. Then changing ownership will not help them, since they still would need to know your password, and likely Ubuntu will not know what to do with such a file at all.

Now, if someone does access your files by changing ownership, then you can clearly see that - the owner has been changed. I am not sure whether the time stamp will be preserved, i.e. whether the "date accessed" column in explorer will be modified as well, Windows is not very consistent on that one.

So, I would guess that if your permissions are the same, you're still the owner, and nobody in your household has super-hacker skills - then your information should be safe""

From the reply it seems that - ntfs permissions are common and will need changing them in ubuntu to gain access which inturn will effect access in windows.
sadly I was hoping this be true as although changing permissions is a trivial thing but it will be a relief to know that my files are still not sneaked into as I can still access my files without problem.

I am willing to use EFS but the limitation with encryption I found on the net again is that although it wont allow anyone to use/move the files inside the encrypted folder but still allow to explore its subfolders and filenames. please correct me if I am wrong.
additional info welcome.