Comparison of privilege authorization features

<p>A number of computer <a href="/facts/Operating_systems/8XTuvMh2">operating systems</a> employ security features to help prevent <a href="/facts/Malicious_software/5ee7TLFR">malicious software</a> from gaining sufficient privileges to compromise the computer system. Operating systems lacking such features, such as <a href="/facts/DOS/6nkoK02J">DOS</a>, <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Windows/bwhAhuSL">Windows</a> implementations prior to <a href="/facts/Windows_NT/EtccWvxQ">Windows NT</a> (and its descendants), CP/M-80, and all Mac operating systems prior to Mac OS X, had only one category of user who was allowed to do anything. With separate execution contexts it is possible for multiple users to store private files, for multiple users to use a computer at the same time, to protect the system against malicious users, and to protect the system against malicious programs. The first multi-user secure system was <a href="/facts/Multics/y7A5peyu">Multics</a>, which began development in the 1960s; it wasn't until <a href="/facts/UNIX/0pNL2seI">UNIX</a>, <a href="/facts/BSD/XQKcURrh">BSD</a>, <a href="/facts/Linux_kernel/dlkduHuA">Linux</a>, and <a href="/facts/Windows_NT/EtccWvxQ">NT</a> in the late 80s and early 90s that multi-tasking security contexts were brought to <a href="/facts/X86/Kypq5fgu">x86</a> consumer machines.
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Comparison of privilege authorization features open-in-new

Comparison of privilege authorization features