Re: This oculd be due to the popularity of windows...
"Perhaps you meant "VMS and BSD", but that does undermine your argument a little. There hasn't been any DOS in Microsoft's OS products since Windows XP came out, whenever that was (I was still Mac-only in those days). The NT kernel was modelled on VMS.
I use both OSes daily. There really is no difference in privilege escalation between OSX and Windows. Processes simply cannot get above their station anymore on either OS, and must ask the user for the permissions they seek."
Yes - but I couldn't remember VMS offhand, and DOS was a more polarised difference...
Priviledge escalation is possible on any OS:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/22/os_x_root_hole/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/14/critical_linux_bug/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/24/killer_character_hoses_smallalmostsmall_all_versions_of_reader_windows/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/14/freebsd_security_bug/
Just the top links from a google search of priv esc against the register domain for the mostly discussed OSes (yes I know netBSD != FreeBSD, I only searched BSD)
Of course it is far easier to ask for the rights from the user - who usually doesn't understand what's hapening and has been trained to "click yes if you want the computer to work"
Biting the hand that feeds IT
