Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ]
From: Jeremiah Cornelius <jeremiah () nur net>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 09:58:56 -0800
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday 12 November 2003 07:49, amebix () comcast net wrote:
With Linux you have the ability to not install certain things. With Windows you have no choice, messenger will be installed and enabled. Its going to be exploitable out of the box.
This is true... A new XP box - installed from Media - requires over 90 MB of new download patches! God help the <128Kbps crowd. This is applied VERY slowly. We are talking two hours on a PIII 750MHz. Three reboots are required, with a manual re-initialization of the patching sequence. How will MS improve this? Mandatory patching? Retroactively enforced on machines they /can't/ get to install the current fixes? MS ought to make payments to high-speed ISPs!
Take for example Debian Woody. Quite possibly the greatest operating system package ever released.
No argument! But the security of Woody is subject to a bunch of apt-get 's after install - not too different from the MS situation - except for the speed! I always grab a subset of the Adamantix packages and I run Bastille to automate securing defaults on the whole mess. Paid for my paranoia...
Basic install is a kernel, C library, shell, and networking functions , etc. Its incredibly secure from default, and from that point on you download the up-to-date packages that YOU WANT.
Why does supposedly modern Windows require a reboot after installing .dot net crap? That would be like making Deb reboot after adding Python and XML/RPC libraries... After 9 years to work on this, 32-bit Windows really /is/ pathetic. I DO miss getting a working Deb 2.x in less than 35 MB. I'd recycle Sparc 5 and IPX machines this way for auth gateways and SMTP forwarders - etc...
Your not forced into anything you dont need. Windows is not more secure, ANY and i do mean ANY bloated operating system is going to be more vulnerable then one that is slimmed to your needs.
Yeah. The choir agrees.
Windows is just to bloated and therefore insecure compared to a slimmed down Linux install. MS needs to kill the messenger service, enable ICF and give the user some more power of his / her box when it comes to security.
Good point about MS Messenger being default, and ICF not! You can make meaningless counts of patches. You can compare numbers of incidents. You can make rhetorical mountains out of statistical molehills. Really, at the end of the day, MS lives in a glass-house. They will rue the stone-throwing, even if they do manage to damage corporate and government acceptance of Linux, etc. None of this posturing affects Winders security - just press releases and dubious "off-white" papers. The next Blaster waits around the corner. Bolting IPSec to a turd won't help! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/snTrJi2cv3XsiSARAgPvAJ4rp45KtjoBGXdUjxVL933AXXdoDwCfZzKx I1YkOny40W6WGkytn86BG7c= =XOo7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] amebix (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] Oliver Beck (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] KF (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] William Warren (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] Damian Gerow (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] Luis Bruno (Nov 13)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] Ron DuFresne (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] William Warren (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] Jeremiah Cornelius (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] Valdis . Kletnieks (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] Jeremiah Cornelius (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] david maynor (Nov 12)
- Re: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux ] Valdis . Kletnieks (Nov 12)