Deep Freeze is a "reboot to restore" piece of computer software created by the Faronics software company from North America.Deep Freeze is compatible with many of the versions of Microsoft's Windows Operating Systems - including Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista, newer versions of the Mac OS X operating system, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop Linux operating system.
Features::Deep Freeze works by making a snapshot of a hard drive at the time of initial installation. If changes (good or bad) are made to settings on a "frozen" computer, they are lost, along with all files (e.g. Windows Updates files) that has not been placed into the "Thawspace" when the computer restarts.
Other features of Deep Freeze include:
One-time passwords (OTPs)
"Thawed Drives"
Stealth mode
Scheduled Restart/Shutdown times with support for virus/Windows updates in Maintenance mode [1]
Encrypted Password protection
System clock or time updates (but only from inside the frozen operating system)
Protected CMOS (but only from inside the frozen operating system)
Security Flaws(As disadvantages):::As with many other software security packages, any protected drive can be permanently edited by booting into an operating system that Deep Freeze isn't installed on. An example of this would be a Linux LiveCD, or BartPE CD. The drive can be mounted read/write and then any file can be edited. This can also be used to reset passwords by using password cracking software like John the Ripper, RainbowCrack or Ophcrack.
Unfortunately, the LiveCD method can not be prevented on most computers, even by disabling CD booting in the BIOS and password protecting it. This is because a "boot key" (usually F12, but different for each motherboard) can always be pressed. It bypasses any BIOS settings and lets the user select any boot device.
Answered by expert
at
11:23 PM on September 07, 2007
