[philicorda]

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:46:05 -0700, Richard Crowley wrote:

"philicorda" wrote ...
"Richard Crowley" wrote:
1- Any program can intentionally turn off the RO bit, then write, then
turn on the bit.

Only if they have permission to do so.

That kind of "permission" in most operating systems (including Windows
and Linux/Mac) is a gentlemen's agreement. People who write malware are
not gentlemen.

It's a bit more than that, isn't it? I mean, if any program can run as
any user, with whatever privileges it likes, there is not much point to
having any security at all.

To elevate privileges requires finding a bug in the operating system or
another app with higher privileges and successfully exploiting it. This
is not unheard of, but it's a bit more involved than breaking a
gentleman's agreement.