[CS-FSLUG] Windows XP restrictions & exploits

[@ndrew]

Nathan,

I know it's generally considered a despicable option, but what about writing
the crypto app in JAVA and running it in a browser? ASP.NET? Or perhaps even
a macro for Word?

One other thing you could try, though I'm not sure if it'd work or not
(really depends on how the school has the systems set up): rename the .EXE
file to a .COM file. This, in my experience, does not affect the ability of
the application to run. Of course, I'm not sure what method the school is
using to restrict executables, so it may not be a viable option.

Just some ideas, anyways.

--
@ndrew
andrew at dothedrew.net
http://www.dothedrew.net

"No amount of genius can overcome
a preoccupation with detail."

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christiansource-bounces at ofb.biz 
> [mailto:Christiansource-bounces at ofb.biz] On Behalf Of N. Thompson
> Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 7:29 PM
> To: christiansource at ofb.biz
> Subject: [CS-FSLUG] Windows XP restrictions & exploits
> 
> Part of my history assignment this year is  major assignment 
> that has to be done entirely independently of the rest of the 
> course, that means no class time to work on it until the time 
> comes around to present it. I wanted to have Cryptography as 
> my topic and I have even gone to the trouble of spending 
> hours and hours working on a program to demonstrate atbash, 
> Caesar and password ciphers. The plan was to finish the 
> program and use it as an example in the project by using one 
> of the overhead projectors the school has hooked up to their 
> computers but there is a serious problem; the school is 
> running very locked down versions of Windows XP, the only 
> programs that are able to run are Internet Explorer, 
> Microsoft Word and Visual Studio 2003, I tried using Visual 
> Studio 2003 to write a launcher for my program but it 
> wouldn't even run the program I wrote with it because of the 
> way the permissions are set up on all the school computers. I 
> am now looking for alternative methods of being able to start 
> the program in the school computers, I've considered burning 
> the program onto a CD-RW for the demonstration and counting 
> on the autorun feature to load the program but I was told 
> that was disabled on the school computers. I then considered 
> the option of writing a launcher with Visual Studio .net 2003 
> but the school has disabled the ability to run anything with 
> a exe file extension outside of the read only folders 
> C:\Windows\ and C:\Program Files\ . Finally I considered 
> bringing in a Linux live CD distribution and running that on 
> the computers just for the demonstration but I'm not holding 
> my breath on that one, I don't think there's the slightest 
> chance that I'll get permission for that since the school's 
> sysadmin is hard to find and as a policy the school doesn't 
> normally want the students to be able to do more then 
> research, edit word files and write programs as part of the 
> computer science course.
> 
> Having considered every option I can think of I'm more or 
> less out of ideas, a lot of kids bring laptops to school for 
> this kind of thing but that isn't an option for me since I 
> don't have one; the other alternative is trying to find 
> another method of running an executable file, perhaps through 
> a Windows XP exploit. I would very much appreciate any 
> possible input on this, I've spend hours on this history 
> assignment and I'd rather not have to change the subject of 
> the assignment and start all over again.
> 
> BTW. I have to know by Friday whether it will be possible for 
> me to run my program on the school computers if anyone has 
> something to suggest.
> 
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