With the introduction of Apple's OS X operating system, multiple user accounts have become more useful and necessary on one machine than ever before. In business situations, I often first setup an Administrator account, perform all the updates to the machine, then create a user account. I will log out as the Administrator and log in as the new user to complete all Application installations and updates so as to give the correct rights to the user that will be using the account. In most situations I leave the user password blank but put a password on the Administrator account. This account gets enabled for remote access and becomes the primary account for the machine as often machines are changed and new users are added and removed. Having one primary Administrator account makes changing users in the future easier and allows for the security of the machine to remain constant with the Administrator account.
Should a users account have a password placed on it, the Administrator account can remove or change the users password with little effort using the System Preferences on OS X -> Accounts to make the change. If both the Administrators and the users account passwords get lost or changed, anyone can restart the machine with an OS X Installation CD/DVD to change either or both passwords. This is performed by rebooting the machine to the Installation CD/DVD while holding the "C" key down, launching the Password Reset Utility, selecting the user you wish to change the password of, and rebooting the machine after entering a new password.
To prevent anyone from performing this simple password reset, Apple has provided a utility to make this harder to perform. The utility is the Open Firmware utility which places a password on the firmware of the machine preventing someone from booting to a CD/DVD, external hard drive, or other device without first entering a password for the firmware. This too though can be removed by removing a RAM chip from the machine and restarting it. BE CAREFUL how you use this software as advised by Apple on the web site.
About the Author
Jason P. Bosket is the principal and fonding member of Source Networks, Inc. a consulting company based in the Chicago, Illinois subburbs. Source Networks, Inc. specializes on the Apple and Microsoft platforms providing installation, consulting, and troubleshooting services to the small and medium sized business community. Source Networks, Inc. can be found at www.sourcenetworks.com.
