Linux Security Week - August 19th 2002

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

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|  LinuxSecurity.com                            Weekly Newsletter     |
|  August 19th, 2002                            Volume 3, Number 32n  |
|                                                                     |
|  Editorial Team:  Dave Wreski             dave () linuxsecurity com    |
|                   Benjamin Thomas         ben () linuxsecurity com     |
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Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com weekly security newsletter.
The purpose of this document is to provide our readers with a quick
summary of each week's most relevant Linux security headlines.

This week, perhaps the most interesting articles include "Intrusion
detection: Too Much Information," "Secure Infrastructure Design,"  
"Secure Remote Workstations With Integrated VPNs," and "Unlocking the
Secrets of Crypto: Cryptography, Encryption, and Cryptology Explained."


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FEATURE: Centralized File-Integrity With Samhain Part I There is no silver
bullet in security; rather, due diligence and knowledge are the best
foundations for solid management of risk. The focus of this document is
distinctively on workstations: those located in a corporate environment,
those situated at the house, and the myriad of situations that fall
somewhere in-between.
 
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/feature_stories/feature_story-116.html
 

This week, advisories were released for cvs, mailman, hylafax,
interchange, l2tpd, xinetd, glibc, modssl, chfn, libpng, bind, xchat,
shareutils, tcl/tk, mm, and ipppd.  The vendors include Caldera, Debian,
Gentoo, Mandrake, OpenBSD, Red Hat, SuSE, Trustix, and Yellow Dog.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/forums_article-5528.html


Take advantage of our Linux Security discussion list!  This mailing list
is for general security-related questions and comments. To subscribe send
an e-mail to security-discuss-request () linuxsecurity com with "subscribe"
as the subject.
 
Find technical and managerial positions available worldwide.  Visit the
LinuxSecurity.com Career Center: http://careers.linuxsecurity.com
 
 
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| Host Security News: | <<-----[ Articles This Week ]-------------
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* Configuring IPsec/IKE on Solaris
August 15th, 2002

The IP Security Protocol (IPsec) and the Internet Key Exchange (IKE)
protocol are designed to permit system and network administrators the
capability to protect traffic between two systems. These systems can be
network devices or individual hosts.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-5527.html


* No Stone Unturned, Part Six
August 14th, 2002

This is an additional installment to the No Stone Unturned series, which
was written to help clarify to NT/2K admins the steps they can take to
determine the nature and purpose of suspicious files found on their
systems. In Part Five of the series, our heroic system administrator found
an unusual file on a compromised system.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-5522.html


* xinetd: Update: File descriptor leak vulnerability
August 14th, 2002

xinetd version 2.3.7 was released that addresses a mior file descriptor
leak present in 2.3.4 - 2.3.6. Steve Grubb, co-maintainer of xinetd, sent
in a note stating, "At the most, if everything is in just the right
configuration...which is probably rare, all they can do is terminate
xinetd."

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/server_security_article-5511.html



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| Network Security News: |
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* Intrusion detection: Too Much Information
August 16th, 2002

Intrusion detection systems have been around for years, but lately
companies have shown new interest in them as worm and virus attacks have
risen, and as new cyber-attacks have been launched from overseas. But
contrary to some enthusiastic claims, these systems aren't some new
security panacea for the enterprise.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/intrusion_detection_article-5529.html


* Secure Wireless Workers
August 15th, 2002

Companies need to continue getting more productivity from employees, the
cost of wireless equipment to make this a reality has never been lower.
Now is a good time to setup secure remote corporate access.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-5525.html


* Secure Infrastructure Design
August 14th, 2002

This paper describes the fundamental components of infrastructure design,
provides an overview of risk management concepts, and illustrates samples
of network topologies.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-5516.html


* The Large-Scale Threat of Bad Data in DNS
August 14th, 2002

Nmap is a utility for network exploration or security auditing. It
supports ping scanning (determine which hosts are up), many port scanning
techniques (determine what services the hosts are offering), and TCP/IP
fingerprinting (remote host operating system identification).

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-5514.html


* IP VPN: An Attractive Service
August 14th, 2002

Service providers have various options in the way in which they can offer
outsourced IP virtual private network (VPN) services to customers.  The
original service offerings were mostly customer premises equipment
(CPE)-based. In such services, service providers deploy and manage CPE VPN
gateways (in other words, dedicated VPN appliances or VPN-enabled
routers/firewalls) at customer sites.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-5517.html


* Secure Remote Workstations With Integrated VPNs
August 12th, 2002

There's no question that remote workstations require protection from the
increasing security threats present today. When a remote user connects to
the corporate network via a VPN, a hacker gaining access to the remote
computer could also potentially enter the corporate network as an
authorized user.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-5499.html



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|  Cryptography:         |
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* Unlocking the Secrets of Crypto: Cryptography, Encryption, and
Cryptology Explained
August 13th, 2002

Encryption, decryption and code breaking came into the public
consciousness in the 1980s with popularity of the movie War Games. It
became newsworthy in the 1990s with the legal battles surrounding PGP and
the political discussion of the Clipper Chip. Now, with information
security becoming more and more of a common concern, the terms encryption,
cryptography and cryptology - commonly grouped together under the term
"crypto" - are seeping into our daily language.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/cryptography_article-5513.html


* Security Flaws Found in PGP E-Mail Encryption
August 13th, 2002

Now that the flaw has been demonstrated, it is more likely to be used.
However, according to Elias Levy, a security architect at SecurityFocus
and Symantec, there is no cause for alarm.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-5509.html



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|  General:              |
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* NIPC Asks for Help on Cyber Alerts
August 17th, 2002

Security expert Ryan Russell told NewsFactor that the NIPC is known for
trailing other cyber security groups, such as CERT, in putting out alerts
and warnings. The National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), the
government's main cyber protection agency, is seeking outside help with
tracking Internet threats and incidents and generating alerts.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-5533.html


* Homeland Insecurity
August 13th, 2002

As was often the case, Bruce Schneier was thinking about a really terrible
idea. We were driving around the suburban-industrial wasteland south of
San Francisco, on our way to a corporate presentation, while Schneier
looked for something to eat not purveyed by a chain restaurant.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/government_article-5507.html


* White-Hat Hate Crimes on the Rise
August 13th, 2002

When hackers broke into Ryan Russell's server and plastered his private
e-mails and other personal files on the Internet last week, Russell tried
to shrug it off as a harmless prank.  But Russell, editor of Hack Proofing
Your Network and an analyst with SecurityFocus.com, also seemed shaken by
the incident.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/hackscracks_article-5512.html


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