Text 1646, 118 rader
Skriven 2004-10-15 00:55:00 av Chip Hearn (1:3613/52)
   Kommentar till text 1643 av Pascal Schmidt (1:153/401.2)
Ärende: Re: Getting grubby
==========================
-=> Pascal Schmidt scribbled to Chip Hearn <=-

 PS> Hi Chip!

 CH> Well, that's you.  Is everyone protected with all that?  I doubt
 CH> it...
 PS> Nope. Note that I don't say Linux is safe everywhere and always. One
 PS> can configure a Linux system to be very unsafe, even if running as a
 PS> normal user all the time.

Yeap, I keep all my systems behind a hardware firewall.  Only ports
accessable are the ones I've opened.  Not everyone does this.  I just
think its wrong to assume that your safe, just because you run Linux.
And to offer information, suggesting someone switch to Linux, and
telling them its safer than Windows is wrong.  Most would assume that
means Linux is safer right out of the box.  That virus's can't infect
it, that no one can hack into an unprotected port.  As you said " One
can configure a Linux system to be very unsafe".  

I had an employee once that thought he was untouchable with Linux.  He
setup a Red Hat box for a client.  Everything went fine for a while...
Then one day, I got a call from said client.  Their "Server" was
inaccessable.  I originally called the employee to go over to check it
out, but he couldn't find anything wrong from the console.  I came over
and started looking.  Turned out this guy had installed some web
administration program, that came with RH... He hadn't configured it at
all, and it was still sitting there with the "Default" username/password
set.  Someone had found it, reconfigured the box in numerous ways, made
it a FTP site.  They had filled up the HD...  The problem now was that
we had no idea what all the "hacker" had changed, so, the entire box's
security was blown.  I made said employee re-install the box from
scratch, after office hours without pay, and no charge to the customer.
He eventually quit.  :)

 CH> See, what I don't want to see is the seperation... Just because  your
 CH> protected, you think your safe.  This is what caused the mess in the
 CH> first place.  To ask, but, do you share files with anyone else?
 CH> Whats to say they aren't infected already...
 PS> I don't usually download binary executable stuff, no, but there are
 PS> some things. Like the firefox browser. If that were containing a Trojan
 PS> horse, it could access all the files on my user account.

 PS> Then there's the recent libpng security hole where a specially crafted
 PS> PNG on some web site could crash the browser or even run arbitrary
 PS> code.

 PS> So there are problems, but they are mostly limited to my user account
 PS> (bad enough) and usually security updates are available quickly.

That is true.  By not running anything from the "Root", you are much
safer, same is true of WinNT2000 and XP.  By creating a Limited user,
you can limit the damage per say.  :)  But the true point is there are
holes, security breeches just waiting to happen in any OS.  Any
complicated program will have bugs.  The more complicated it is, the
more bugs, and that means more possible holes.  Maruice saying that
having thousands looking at the code makes it better?  Well, how do
these supposed exploits occur if there are "Thousands" all looking at
the code.  It shouldn't happen at all.  There are also thousands looking
at the code at Microsoft too, and look at the holes and exploits there.
The only reason it is worse for them, is there are Millions more using
it.  Also, because there are Millions more using Windows, it makes the
news, whereas most exploits for Linux, barely make the back page.  Not
because they are any less dangerous, but because there are alot less
involved.

 CH> Doesn't always have to be the convient software that gets you.
 CH> Sharing
 CH> files, getting files off the internet... Are you sure that site your
 CH> downloading from is safe?  Have they run an AV on the files prior to
 CH> you
 CH> downloading it?  I'm not saying this is occuring already, but, lets
 CH> not
 CH> be sticking our heads in the sand just yet.  :)
 PS> I'm not aware of any virus scanning software for Linux not counting
 PS> those that look for DOS and Windows vira (and those I don't care about,
 PS> not having any Windows machines here).

There are a whole bunch.  Most are free, but a few are charging.  I saw
a list 2 days ago, on sourceforge that covered all the AV programs for
Linux known at the time, and their capabilites.  F-Prot, Trend Micro,
etc... <I have no affiliation with any of them!>  :)  

 CH> Hey, has the debian guys scanned their site?  I mean, all those
 CH> updates... who knows what's already on my systems.
 PS> They are signing their packages, I believe. I know for a fact that GNU
 PS> had problems with manipulated files on their FTP server in the past,
 PS> which is why they removed a lot of files from the server until they
 PS> could make sure with the package's author that the files they had were
 PS> okay.

Yea, I was bit by that little fiasco.  I guess that's why I don't take
the security of my systems for granted anymore.  I use to, granted.  I
thought as some here do... that I'm running Linux and there are no
viruii or spyware/adware that can infect my Linux box.  haha... wrong.    

 PS> There's a lot one can do, no matter whether on Windows or Linux, to
 PS> limit the impact a Trojan horse or virus can have on the system.

Yeap, firewall, keeping updated AV's <I run 2 on all my Windows
boxes>... Spyware/Adware removal tools... but the firewall also has to
block inbound and outbound.  So, knowing what the different trojan's
use, knowing what the Virii use, blocking those ports... Its all part of
this new game of survival in the computer world.



Sniper
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