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On 23 October 2012 10:34, Adam Latham <adam.latham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> Just a brief one. We've finally managed to convince the IT department in the
> Academy I work at to try Python. Which is pretty cool in itself.
>
> However, as they run Windows 7 and everything is locked down pretty tight, I'm
> wondering about the wisdom of the default install path.
>
> I should mention they've opted for the community edition of ActivePython (why? No
> idea...) and have installed in the C:\Python2.7 directory.
>
> They're intending for people to use Idle to develop.
>
> Having briefly played with it and done the obligatory os.getcwd() Idle is running
> straight out of the Python directory.
>
> Don't ask me why but it just rang some alarm bells.
>
> Whilst I'm sure that the average student at my school has little desire or skill
> to run malicious scripts, it just seems a bit mental to allow these to be run
> directly on this path.
>
> Am I just being paranoid? What about a CLI argument such as:
>
> idle.py -c "os.chdir('some-user-path')"
>
> Added to the shortcut/launcher?
>
> Any comments or suggestion welcomed. I'd like them to at least give python a good
> go, rather than give it up as too difficult to configure...
>
> Write permissions to the c:\ drive are strictly controlled, I should add, and the
> userspace is in H:\
>
It should not be a problem IMHO, python likes to install to
c:\Python27 but that is just where it and its libraries live, you
don't need write permission there other than to install it in the
first place, and that is no different to installing in %PROGRAMFILES%.
it is nice however to have C:\Python27 added to the %PATH% (either
system or user) to prevent some insanity later when running scripts.
Users should be writing python files in their home directories and
running them from there too so any output gets saved. the python.exe
will be running under there userid and should have no more permissions
than they do regularly so it can't write to places you can't and can't
read from files you can not. However if this is a *very* locked down
system and they are prevented getting to a command prompt etc then
python will give them access to files that might otherwise be cut off
from them, should not be a problem in theory but worth considering.
Robin
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