Slashdot Mirror
Experience with 'Secure' Exam Testing Software?
Durindana writes "My law school has decided using the Exam4 software from Extegrity, thinking it would be a good idea. I disagree; the software can only be used by students on their own laptops, and (of course) Exam4 is mono-platform. Anyone have experience using this software (e.g. security level, reliability) or, hopefully, successfully opposing its use? It strikes me as a hell of a disadvantage to students who'd like an alternative to hand-writing but - for some strange reason - don't own a Windows laptop."
To re-phrase this question: "What are the security vulnerabilities of my exam software, and how can I exploit them to do well on my test?"
---Psilosopher
Unless I'm missing something, this is hillarious. The way I read it, his law school is forcing everyone to get a Windows laptop to be able to run some exam software. The implications of this are fun to think about. For one, by forcing everyone on a single platform, the law school seems to be going against the Microsoft antitrust rulling. Secondly, doesn't using "exam software" on people's personal computers seem a little insecure? How long until someone brute forces all the multiple choice questions?
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
How long until the masses discover "net send"??
On the "disadvantage" side of things, exam4 looks particularly bad. Other pages allow students access to some of their notes (thus, making it advantageous to have a laptop) but no find/search functionality (or some other kind of feature-disabled option). Thus, you can get at the notes in digital form, all of them, but have to put up with a few restrictions. If all you get is a word processor (read: text editor, since it doesn't really do any extra word-processing things), there's not much advantage for the students. Of course, the professors will have the advantage of not having to read handwritten tests, etc.
Most law schools that use software like this also seem to consider it OPTIONAL. If your school is basically forcing you to buy/use a Windows-based laptop, they'd better be a top-tier school worth the extra $1500+...
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
for invoking "UltraSecure Mode" and a "Secret Number"
for unlocking the encrypted exam answers; and our nifty
"ExamOpener" utility software that "semi-automatically"
retrieves exams from the floppy disks...
And cheaters get "Double Secret Probabtion"
then a nifty fine of "One Trillion Dollars"
and jail time in an "UltraSecure" cell
guarded by "Sharks With Laser Beams"
Just like in UltraSecure Mode, access to all other material on the computer is blocked.
Run the exam software in Virtual PC. Anyone? This is like print-screen crack for MS Reader...
-CowboyNick
I've also encountered Extegrity's product, which is required at my law school. It does have at least rudimentary protection against the most obvious workarounds - when I tried to run it within VMWare, it "failed security check" and refused to operate. I'm not sure how exactly it checks to see if it's running in a virtualized environment - one project I have on my back-burner is to see how well it deals with bochs.
.doc files. OpenOffice hasn't failed me yet, though, and of course Word for the Mac exists and is frequently available at a steep discount to students.
I'm also the proud owner of a PowerBook. My solution was to trade some other computer gear for a big old PC laptop with a mostly-dead battery that meets the system requirements. I plan to use that laptop only for taking exams. Aside from exams, my school is fairly platform-agnostic: papers are turned in on paper, and the only electronic interaction with professors is via email. The one kink that I have run into is profs and fellow students who insist on sharing their academic insight via Word
As someone who also develops examination software, and who is doing academic research into computer security, I have to say that this is a ridiculous idea. Aside from requiring people to have specific hardware and purchase specific (pricey, but I guess they're law students...) software, the security issues here are horrendous.
The *only* ways to do this kind of thing is either have the software running on trusted hardware like a previously set up computer lab, or run the software on a trusted server and give the *untrusted* clients only a thin-client (citrix/ts/vnc/web browser). AND you have to have someone supervising them to make sure they've smuggled no notes in and aren't cut'n'pasting from another app.
Surely a law school, of all places, would have someone who knows a bit about information security on staff?
This software looks like exactly the kind of product developed by someone with no security training outside Microsofts VB tutorials.
Exactly the kind of software not to use for anything important - and Exams at Law School are important - there is a huge amount of money and future careers involved.
- Muggins the Mad
I'm surprised that nobody else has brought this up, but hear me out...
:)
If "interior" is the opposite of "exterior", then what is the opposite of "extegrity"?