restict cd-rom [Archive] - The macosxhints Forums

vihask

09-04-2010, 08:26 AM

i have a G5 with tiger OS how can i restrict CD-rom access?

trevor

09-06-2010, 03:50 AM

Have you looked in System Preferences > Parental Controls? I don't have a computer still running Tiger around to check the details about what you can do in Tiger, but that would be the place to set it, if Tiger allowed that restriction.

Trevor

vihask

09-06-2010, 08:51 PM

running a managed acount would still mount the cd/dvd and allow to access the content. i work for an organisation where i need to restrict access cd/dvd aswell as usb to all the users apart fr admin.

DeltaMac

09-06-2010, 09:21 PM

If that's a G5 tower - easiest is to simply disconnect the CD drive.
padlock the case so the unfortunate user can't get inside to hook that drive up without proper authority.
Controlling the CD/DVD drive seems a little paranoid, eh? I think about a school that uses CDs for various ed. titles that may require the CD to be in the drive for the software to work. How would you plan to use that type of software?

DE9

09-07-2010, 03:12 PM

I'm not sure if there is a way to disable just USB to certain User Accounts... And Parental Controls doesn't seem to have any control over the USB or DVD hardware either, just burning CDs/DVDs. A physical barrier would seem to be the simplest way...

09-07-2010, 05:00 PM

I don't have Tiger to test on, and while I have Snow Leopard I haven't tested it there (not willing to risk mucking around with my system for this), but I believe you can do this using fstab. edit the following line in at the top of the file /etc/fstab (not /etc/fstab.hd, which is deprecated):

/dev/cdrom/ none cd9660 ro,noauto

if I'm reading the mans correctly, this should make it so that anything trying to mount through the block special device for the cdrom will not mount. you can then write a mount script for administrators so that they can mount a cdrom manually.

it's a whitespace delimited line: you may need to add multiple entries (in case cd9660 type doesn't block all CDs, or in case there's a different block special device for dvds). in any case, you'll need to experiment, and I make no guarantees it will work at all.