Backing-up without authentication
 

Where/how does SD! store our admin password when we have the 'padlock' unlocked?

I has assumed that it was kept in the Keychain, but I was surprised to see that SD! stays unlocked no matter which account we are logged in to.

We authenticate our copying tool the same way the system does (with "suid").

I have no idea what that means Dave.

I guess I will re-lock the padlock and hope that my admin password wasn't ever written to disk...

Your password was not written to disk, nor was it ever recorded or seen by SuperDuper!, actually.

Instead, a single application on the drive was given System permissions. Your password is only used to *authorize* this action: it's just like unlocking a preference pane (like Sharing).

I wasn't really worried that SD! was stealing my admin password, just that by leaving the padlock open that SD! might be tossing my password around in clear text.

After some googling, I think I understand the suid concept...

Thanks.

No, we definitely aren't. As I said, we never even really know what it is, since it's all handled by the authentication framework in OSX itself.