Was this before or after Bradley Manning? (I think he used a CD-RW drive on a "secure" computer to extract the data he sent to Wikileaks.)
> account that others shared
Shared account? Really? Sounds like top-notch security in action. [/sarcasm]
> no root access to install CLANG or LLVM
You don't need root access, you can just do:
./configure --prefix=$HOME/clang
or whatever the equivalent is if clang uses a different build system.
If /home is mounted noexec, that's a real problem, but if you're doing software development, noexec would mean you couldn't run the programs you're writing either.
Of course, just because there's no technical reason you can't do something, doesn't mean there isn't a nontechnical / political reason you shouldn't. If you'd made a project change as large as using a different compiler without approval from (or at least notification to) higher up, you might have gotten in trouble.
It was in 1996-1997 so it was before. They would install the OS and then remove the CD-ROM drive for security reasons. One of which was to make sure no unauthorized software was installed, and yes they had CD Burners back then and saw that as a security risk for copying information.
You will find that not all federal systems are secure and run by experts. Some federal employees are not qualified for their jobs, and that is why federal contractors are hired to make up for it. For example some of our servers and systems were not behind a firewall and had public Internet IP addresses. I agree a shared account is a security risk, and when someone changed the password to the maintenance account we were locked out and had to file a form to learn the new password. In fact to do anything like install software or configure a system we had to file a form first.
Yes the federal government and chain of command requires that I file a request before I use a new software product. Even if it can be downloaded and run in the home directory, if I don't get permission for it, I am in deep trouble. So much as refreshing an IP address, if I do it myself I am in trouble, I have to call their help desk and have them refresh and renew it for me.
Was this before or after Bradley Manning? (I think he used a CD-RW drive on a "secure" computer to extract the data he sent to Wikileaks.)
> account that others shared
Shared account? Really? Sounds like top-notch security in action. [/sarcasm]
> no root access to install CLANG or LLVM
You don't need root access, you can just do:
./configure --prefix=$HOME/clang
or whatever the equivalent is if clang uses a different build system.
If /home is mounted noexec, that's a real problem, but if you're doing software development, noexec would mean you couldn't run the programs you're writing either.
Of course, just because there's no technical reason you can't do something, doesn't mean there isn't a nontechnical / political reason you shouldn't. If you'd made a project change as large as using a different compiler without approval from (or at least notification to) higher up, you might have gotten in trouble.