Privilege elevation

[unixronin]

Goose asked to have some more games installed on her recently-rebuilt computer today.  So we pulled down the CDs, went through them to find which ones she wanted, and started making and mounting VirtualCD images (we try to avoid letting the kids have the physical CDs, because they don't take care of them and the CDs end up scratched or broken) and installing games.

Or, as it turns out, not.  When I recreated Goose's account, I set her up as a "power user" with the privileges to install software.  She could only install one of the games she'd picked out; all the others demanded administrator privileges in order to install.

Now, we're talking about children's educational games here.  Big Thinkers, Spy Fox, Clue Finders, this kind of stuff.  Humongous Entertainment, The Learning Company, Brøderbund, Richard Scarry, and the like.  What on EARTH can these games possibly be doing that requires they be installed with administrator privileges?!?  HELLO?

Comments

[attutle.livejournal.com]

What on EARTH can these games possibly be doing that requires they be installed with administrator privileges?

Wait, I think I know this one. is the answer "Adding another hole to your security sieve."?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I hope not..... but given how hot they are on making you register, I guess I wouldn't put it past The Learning Company to install some kind of spyware, even if it's just parent-monitoring-child spyware.