Screen Sharing Insecure

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Level 1

34 points

Screen Sharing Insecure

When I ran a screen sharing session with a friend, he had control of my screen. I couldn't find an option to limit access to my system while screen sharing. Anyone know where it is? Or does apple still have to implement some form of option for that?

15.4" Mac Book Pro (late-2008), 24" iMac., Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Sep 13, 2009 8:47 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 13, 2009 8:57 AM in response to Soundman5

Apple's "Screen Sharing" and the VNC protocol are basically an "all or nothing" solution. If you give someone else control of your screen remotely (or, conversely, if you yourself log into a remote computer through VNC), they are only limited by their knowledge of the computer's user passwords.

Screen Sharing is, in fact, encrypted (so is secure in that sense), but you must trust the person you allow to share your screen.

Matt

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Answer 2

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Sep 13, 2009 9:02 AM in response to Soundman5

Soundman5 wrote:
When I ran a screen sharing session with a friend, he had control of my screen.
I couldn't find an option to limit access to my system while screen sharing.

that's just what screen sharing is for. if you don't want it, disable screen sharing in system preferences->sharing or keep it enabled but don't give out your password to friends.

Anyone know where it is? Or does apple still have to implement some form of option for that?

I'm not sure what you mean. when someone is sharing your screen you get a scrrensharing menu icon and you can stop a screen sharing session from there. is this what you are asking?

Message was edited by: V.K.

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Answer 3

Soundman5 Author

Level 1

34 points

Sep 13, 2009 9:03 AM in response to Matt Clifton

Thanks,

It would seem more practical for Apple to develop a way to implement enough security features so that someone sharing their screen has the option to either allow the viewer control, or not. It should connect so that it does not allow it. Other screen sharing apps have this option, and they are VNC too. YuuGuu.com, etc...

It's annoying that whenever someone viewing the screen through screen share can move their mouse and over ride the host's mouse.

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Answer 4

Soundman5 Author

Level 1

34 points

Sep 13, 2009 9:09 AM in response to V.K.

I do need the screen sharing for online classes I give, but don't want a student having control. As I said above, a viewer simply moving his mouse overrides mine. It should not do that.

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Answer 5

Sep 13, 2009 1:11 PM in response to Soundman5

If we are talking about the Screen Sharing app invoked from the go Menu and a VNC:// address you can set some options in System Preferences > Sharing in Snow Leopard.

9:11 PM Sunday; September 13, 2009

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Answer 6

Zevlag

Level 1

10 points

Sep 20, 2009 6:36 PM in response to Soundman5

Maybe the feature you want is called iChat Theater.

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Answer 7

Jamy

Level 3

570 points

Nov 10, 2009 1:21 PM in response to Soundman5

Soundman, if you have the same security issues with Screen Sharing that I am experiencing in Snow Leopard, in the class environment the student that connected to you would also be able to monitor your Mac until he restarts, unless you disabled Screen Sharing altogether from your machine.. I found this thread while researching my security hole in Screen sharing on SL, so thought I would give you a heads up on that.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2200075&tstart=0

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