Re: Windows Server 2003 - Not secure from my test but OSX from Mac is secure from the start

[Damon McMahon <inst_karma () hotmail com>]

I think you miss the point, somewhat.

Not wanting to turn this into a flame war [feel free to reject, 
moderator :)]:

On Monday, Sep 15, 2003, Sebastian Schneider <ses () straightliners de> 
wrote:

> Secure and security are completly different things. As far as I 
> remember,
> there are several flaws in the software shipped with MacOS X. I guess 
> you
> might remember the last three security updates. If not try running the
> Software Update panel.

Nowhere near the number of Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003.

> The concealment of ports is not really meaningful, since security is 
> more than
> about if port scans succeed or fail.

I disagree. Concealment of (i.e. packet filtering based on) ports is an 
effective way of prohibiting - or at least restricting - remote access 
to vulnerable applications. If Windows hosts concealed ports 135 and 
445 the Blaster worm would have been a blip on the radar.

Sure, layer 3/4 packet filtering is not the be-all-and-end-all, but the 
comparison of netstat/nmap/etc output on a MacOSX host compared with a 
Windows 2000/XP host is telling [I haven't seen it on a Server 2003 
host, but I'm led to believe it's almost as bad].

I also believe that the Internet Connection Firewall on Windows 
XP/Server 2003 is _off_ by default, whereas the opposite is true of 
MacOSX. I may stand corrected on this...

>  I guess, there will be some more flaws
> within that operating system.

Yes, as there are in Windows (several root-level RPC flaws discovered 
in several weeks). So the point is, knowing the probability of such 
flaws, how do we proactively minimise the risk? Layer 3/4 packet 
filtering goes some way towards this.

> By the way, when having physical access to an Apple running MacOS X
> everything's so easy. All you need is inserting the MacOS X setup CD 
> and
> welcome to wonderland. Even booting into single-user mode if helpful 
> much
> often. Thanks to Apple.

There are so many tools out there that can reset the Administrator 
account with console access to Windows that _no_ Windows machine is 
safe if it is not physically secure.

For anyone interested, it is quite simple to prevent access to the 
MacOSX file system through alternate boot disk or single user mode boot 
without a firmware password - something similar to the BIOS password on 
a WinTel (a little more user friendly, however).

Sure, MacOSX security is not perfect, but on the 
security<->functionality scale it certainly sits closer to the 
'security' end... whether this is at the expense of functionality is a 
subjective judgement, I guess.



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