Backdoor Strategy- opinion needed.

Question

I'm creating an application to track publications and grants for a university. Professors will need to put they CV into the system when it is up and running. Yeah, right.

The person in charge is planning on hiring someone to input all of the information, but my questions is how?

The strategy I'm thinking of is to install a backdoor. The lucky undergrad can log in as any professor using the backdoor. Once all the data is removed, the backdoor can be removed.

Doing so would probably be as simple as editing out a comment in the config file. The IT guys would still have access, but since they control the machines, they would have access anyway. Are there any flaws to this strategy?

Answer 1

You risk the undergrad dealing some other damage. What you should do is have them create a new user, give that user a small partition, and have the user enter the data on to that. Then just copy it over when he's done. Bad idea to give a student actual access, and even worse to have him log on as the guy - he should have his own user.

Answer 2

Instead of installing a backdoor, why not create a priviledged user role. Users with this role can view and modify data for any other users (or a select group of users if you want to be fancy - and more secure - with it). So, the undergrad could use an account with this role to input the necessary data. When he is done, an admin can remove the role from his account, effectively closing the "back door".

Answer 3

Don't underestimate the ongoing need for staff, students, or temps to enter and maintain the data. As simple as upkeep may be after the initial loading (typing) period, some professors simply will not do it, and will delegate it to staff.

In an eerily similar application (ours tracks publications and grants, among other things, as part of a career review for raises and promotions) our decision was to use a "proxy" system, where certain users can "switch to" other users. It's not really a switch because we store who was doing the input/editing along with who the data applies to.

Contrary to what Justin Ethier said about privileged roles, these people are the least privileged in the system, allowed only to switch to another account and do data entry.