[selcuka]

So you installed a text editor and wanted to edit /etc/hosts. Should the OS permit you to save your changes or not?

Now what should happen if the text editor decides to modify /etc/hosts without your knowledge?

[Dylan16807]

The secure answer is that the OS gives you a trusted file picker and it grants access to that specific file to the text editor.

This works better with a GUI, but you can adapt it to a console too.

[lmz]

> Now what should happen if the text editor decides to modify /etc/hosts without your knowledge?

Pop up a UAC prompt of course. It worked so well for Vista.