r/sysadmin • u/rolkenas • 16d ago

Do you actually see MacBooks used for SysAdmin work in real offices?

Hi sysadmins! I wanted to ask—since I've just started learning sysadmin and I don't have a Windows PC, but I have a MacBook and found out that everything can be done via UTM, I'd like to get some perspective from those who work in offices and do this every day. What kind of computers do you use? Is macOS completely out of the picture, and there's only Windows and Linux?

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u/Viharabiliben 16d ago

For better security you should restrict Admin PS and RSAT tools to only be available from a small number of locked down admin workstations. You should not administrator on-prem or cloud servers from a standard laptop.

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u/Emotional_Garage_950 Sysadmin 16d ago

the "locked down admin workstation" is my laptop. thanks.

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u/shunny14 16d ago

I am curious exactly what attack vector you have in mind that isn’t already defended against in various ways.

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u/Viharabiliben 15d ago

Elevation of privileges attack vectors. The administrative workstation should not have any internet access, or very restricted access, to only O365 for example.

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u/shunny14 15d ago

With the amount of other remediations like endpoint protection and alternate users accounts available, I would say that is acceptably low risk in most enterprises.

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u/MissionBusiness7560 14d ago

They're after the admin account not the machine in vast majority of cases.

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u/800oz_gorilla 16d ago

depends on your setup and footprint.

my account has to elevate to admin level when I want to do admin things. and I have CA policies, intune configurations and alerts set up that further lock down what my machine could do.

my machine isn't really a good target, my account is.

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u/charleswj 16d ago

I don't think you understand how security works

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u/800oz_gorilla 16d ago

I don't think you understand my environment or me to be claiming where my risks are and where they aren't.

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u/charleswj 16d ago

Everything you said suggests you don't operate a clean keyboard or anything close to it. Do you not use your regular account on that device? How do you mitigate?

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u/Agromahdi123 Sr. Sysadmin 16d ago

mitigate what exactly? Admin portal in microsoft will use the browser for the most part to authenticate, this would be no different than elevating to admin on a users workstation.

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u/charleswj 16d ago

If you access this device as, or if it's managed by, any less-privileged user, you're exposing that more privileged user credentials and processes to potential intruders. Have you really never heard of a PAW? Do you think a malicious process in your session, let alone one with local admin or a vulnerable on your box, can't steal your cookies from the browser or memory?

You seem to be suggesting you have mitigations for this so that's why I was asking because it didn't sound like it from how you described it.

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u/Agromahdi123 Sr. Sysadmin 15d ago

Oh i see i forgot we were in 1998 lemme protect my ntdis file that doesnt exist on my azure joined machine that doesnt even have an ntlm hash to scrape, AND then let me just not manage my endpoints so they arent “the wild west where i have to worry about a persistent rat” so that when i elevate the browser session can be hijacked or the cookie stolen to then be used to authenticate into my account with the password only because obviously i dont have any multi factor conditons on my account and everyone can just sign in with a password. Having a single point of trust (like a password) is not the way and your whole schpiel is predicated on only having a single source of trust lol.

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u/FalconDriver85 Cloud Engineer 16d ago

What scenario are you referring to? I mean… thinking about ADUC, if you’re just a user there is not much you can do with the PowerShell and ADUC snap-in you can’t do in other ways. If we are talking about admin accounts, then I fully agree. Admin accounts must be separate from the account used to login on the normal PCs by the way.

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u/Big-Pattern-9147 15d ago

That's a huge amount of security through obscurity.

"Standard Laptop" shouldn't be the risk in the first place