password protection

[Mike or Penny Novack]

Tilo Haas wrote:

>Is it possible to set up password protection with gnucash?
>  
>
Belongs at the operating system level. Nobody who isn't you or a system 
administrator on your system should be able to look at any of your data.

Remember, this is open software. If the program had code in there to 
check that you entered the correct password my version of the program 
would simply take the same path for an incorrect password as the correct 
one (altering just ONE instruction) and I could read your data. Many 
commercial products will provide what the customer asks for EVEN IF 
USELESS OR UNNECESSARY.

1) If you don't (already) have this minimal level of security at your 
operating system level, if anybody could simply sit down at your 
computer and log in and look at all of your data, WHY? (you have 
probably chosen to disable the security since almost all moder OSs offer 
it).

2) Not really enough. If you are paranoid you need to be able to prevent 
somebody sitting down, switching BIOS to "boot from CD first" and then 
insert a "live OS" CD bringing the computer up in a different OS in 
which they have system administrator rights. If you are worried about 
somebody being able to take away your computer and run whatever they 
want then you need ENCRYPTED DATA.

Michael