Linux Security Week - January 7th 2002

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

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|  LinuxSecurity.com                            Weekly Newsletter     |
|  January 7th, 2002                            Volume 3, Number 1n   |
|                                                                     |
|  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 "Chrooting All
Services in Linux," "Snort-Setup for Statistics HOWTO," "Non-stop
authentication with Linux clusters," and "Building a Linux Firewall."

Get 10% Off & FREE Shipping for all Guardian Digital secure servers! Visit
Guardian Digital's online store for details:

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The week advisories were released for mailman, mutt, glibc, and libgtop.  
The vendors include Conectiva, Debian, and Red Hat.  Packages such as
mailman and glibc were referenced in last week's newsletter.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/forums_article-4237.html


 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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* Vulnerability in encrypted loop device for Linux
January 3rd, 2002

The following text describes a security hole in the encrypted loop device
for linux. Because of it, an attacker is able to modify the content of the
encrypted device without being detected. This text proposes to fix the
hole by authenticating the device.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/cryptography_article-4229.html


* Chrooting All Services in Linux
January 3rd, 2002

Chrooted system services improve security by limiting damage that someone
who broke into the system can possibly do. What is chroot? Chroot
basically redefines the universe for a program. More accurately, it
redefines the "ROOT" directory or "/"  for a program or login session.
Basically, everything outside of the directory you use chroot on doesn't
exist as far a program or shell is concerned.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/server_security_article-4233.html


* Predictable Passwords Simplify a Hacker's Task
December 31st, 2001

Even those who are vigilant about guarding passwords may be giving away
more than they think. The problem is that computer passwords have evolved
into the personality test of a networked society, as millions of people
try to sum up their essence through a few taps on the keyboard.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/host_security_article-4219.html


* The OpenAntivirus Project
December 31st, 2001

OpenAntiVirus is a platform for people seriously interested in anti-virus
research, network security and computer security to communicate with each
other, to develop solutions for various security problems, and to develop
new security technologies.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/projects_article-4218.html



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| Network Security News: |
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* Snort-Setup for Statistics HOWTO
January 4th, 2002

This HOWTO describes how to configure Snort version 1.8.3 to be used in
conjunction with the statistical tools ACID (Analysis Console for
Intrusion Databases) and SnortSnarf. It also intends to get some internal
statistics out of snort, e.g. if there are packets dropped.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/intrusion_detection_article-4240.html


* A Rough Year for SSH
January 3rd, 2002

Just as 2000 was a rough year for firewalls, with holes blown in both
commercial and open-source products, 2001 was a most uncomfortable year
for the secure shell, or ssh. Several groups focused their attentions on
this cornerstone of the net, and several problems emerged. ssh has emerged
from this scrutiny a stronger product. <

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/cryptography_article-4230.html


* Non-stop authentication with Linux clusters
January 3rd, 2002

We use an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server to provide
authentication services to which various applications can subscribe. To
provide a highly available LDAP server, we use the heartbeat package from
the Linux-HA initiative (www.linux-ha.org). We also provide an example of
setting up the Apache web server to use LDAP authentication.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-4232.html


* Building a Linux Firewall
January 3rd, 2002

The 2.4 Kernel of Linux has a great tool called netfilter, which is a
framework for creating firewalls. Many new Linux distributions such as
RedHat 7.1 come with basic firewall rulesets that allow you to
automatically create low, medium, or high security firewalls during
installation.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/firewalls_article-4236.html



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|  Vendors/Products:     |
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* Security shopping lists made for the New Year
January 2nd, 2002

"Smart cards, USB tokens, and biometrics will be some of the hot areas
because companies, organizations, and others are beginning to realize they
need to have a better handle on who's coming and going," Kolodgy said.  "

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/general_article-4222.html


* Guardian Digital Launches Online Career Center
January 2nd, 2002

Guardian Digital, pioneers in Linux and open source security, today
released its worldwide online career center. Encompassing more than 30,000
jobs within the Linux and open source fields,
http://careers.linuxsecurity.com has the hottest jobs within high profile
industries including computer security and consulting.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-4224.html



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|  General News:         |
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* Carnivore: Turning Snooping Into Art
January 5th, 2002

It's a privacy-busting boogeyman to civil libertarians, an anti-terror
panacea to lawmakers. And now Carnivore, the FBI's infamous Internet
surveillance program, has become an inspiration to a group of the Web's
leading artists.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/privacy_article-4241.html


* Bug watch: No such thing as secure IT
January 4th, 2002

Each week vnunet.com asks a different expert from the IT security world to
give their views on recent virus and security issues, with advice,
warnings and information on the latest threats.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/general_article-4238.html


* Rare Linux virus on the loose
January 3rd, 2002

It has emerged in the last week that another of those rare Linux viruses
may be on the loose. And this one has strong similarities to October's
Remote Shell Trojan (RST) that was largely dismissed by the Linux
community.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/hackscracks_article-4235.html


* Swatting Persistent Security Pests
December 31st, 2001

Nice summary of the various network threats on the Internet in 2001. "DoS
attacks, worms, and wireless vulnerabilities constantly hover at the edges
of your networks.  Squash these bugs before they bite. DoS and Distributed
DoS (DDoS) attacks are well understood.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-4220.html


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