[Gllug] Code Tux

[Chris Ball]

On Sat, Jul 21, 2001 at 10:14:06PM +0100, Simon Bunker wrote:
> I for one would like to see this up on a how-to site of some description at
> least and instructions on how to go about securing your system more.

A quick google search shows up securing linux articles on freeos.com,
linuxgazette.com, securityfocus.com and rootprompt.org. There are plenty
more articles around, and some really excellent books out there. 

> Not much is meantioned about Linux security as it seems most people assume
> it is fully secure anyway

I think it's more because linux still has a small user base, and an
article on securing Windows would be more popular. Certainly I don't
agree that the administrators of UNIX servers have some incorrect
assumptions about how secure their systems are.   

> or people would be nice to Linux systmes because they are open source.

Again, I know no-one who thinks this. If I did, I'd shout at them. It's
an incredibly delusional idea. 

> The obscurity aspect hardly counts in Linux machines connected
> to the internet - although this might work for Mac servers.

No, it doesn't count at all. That's the point.. the security is
*enhanced* (in my opinion) because so many thousands of people over the
world delve into the code and spot potential problems.  

> I'm sure there must be some virii out there too

There are a handful. There's a difference in that if I downloaded a
virus in my e-mail, it can only be run under the priviledges of my user
- through the multi-user nature of UNIX, it *can't* format the hard
drive or do any of the nasty things that Windows viruses do. Worms are
possible, but very easily avoided by not running things like random perl
scripts and keeping an eye on the security lists.

> there have been a few things in the news such as a cross platform x86
> virus. 

I'm vaguely willing to be corrected, but that sounds like a huge hoax.
Can you remember the news source?

~C.

-- 
Chris Ball.
chris at cpan.org || http://printf.net/
"There's no blood here; just sugar and caffeine, fighting for precedence."

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