Linux Security Week - July 29th 2002

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

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|  LinuxSecurity.com                            Weekly Newsletter     |
|  July 29th, 2002                              Volume 3, Number 30n  |
|                                                                     |
|  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 "Unix Shell
Scripting Malware," "My Guide To Linux Security," "VPN Setup using IPsec,"
and "Network Defenders Get Stuck in to Honeynet Challenge."

This week, advisories were released for glibc, php, and bind.  The vendors
include EnGarde and Red Hat.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/forums_article-5400.html

FEATURE: Assessing Internet Security Risk, Part Two: an Internet
Assessment Methodology
 
This article is the second in a series that is designed to help readers to
assess the risk that their Internet-connected systems are exposed to. In
the first installment, we established the reasons for doing a technical
risk assessment. In this installment, we'll start discussing the
methodology that we follow in performing this kind of assessment.
 
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/feature_stories/feature_story-114.html
 

> > Guardian Digital Combats Proprietary Software Licensing Deadline <<

Guardian Digital, Inc., the first full-service open source Internet server
security company, has announced a special incentive program designed to
provide companies with an alternative to Windows-based servers and
applications as the July 31st deadline for Microsoft's new licensing
program approaches.
 
 Press Release:
 http://www.guardiandigital.com/company/press/
 EnGarde-Licensing-Promotion.pdf
 
 Save Now:
 http://store.guardiandigital.com/html/eng/493-AA.shtml
 

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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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* Unix Shell Scripting Malware
July 27th, 2002

Unix/Linux binary malware can be very dependent upon distribution flavour
and kernel version. Furthermore, the use of binary files as a starting
point for virus infection may not always be very successful - starting off
with a coredump will result in a rapid failure.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/host_security_article-5412.html


* Slashdot: Additional Security in the Linux Kernel?
July 25th, 2002

"Recently, I was looking for some way to improve security on my linux
boxes. I found few linux patches like grsecurity, LIDS (now also as Linux
Security Module), Medusa DS9. I'm testing grsecurity (and it's ACLs) now
and I'm quite satisfied with it, but I wonder, what are pros and cons of
other solutions. Anybody tried them and can share his experience with us?"

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/host_security_article-5392.html


* My Guide To Linux Security
July 24th, 2002

This article explains the steps I take to secure my home computer and data
communications. If you are an active proponent of computer security, this
article will be a review. If you do not have any security practices
currently, you should read on to get a general idea of how to secure a
Linux box.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/documentation_article-5391.html


* Serious PHP vuln reported
July 23rd, 2002

The PHP form-data POST handler is susceptible to a malicious POST request
that can trigger an error condition which, depending on your hardware, can
crash the machine or provide for remote exploitation. On an Intel x86
machine an attacker has no control over memory allocation/recovery and can
only cause a denial of service; on a Sparc/Solaris machine an attacker
would be able to free chunks of memory and overwrite them arbitrarily to
run code.


http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-5382.html


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| Network Security News: |
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* VPN Setup using IPsec
July 24th, 2002

Manish Arya has contributed an article he has written on using FreeS/WAN
to build a VPN. "IPsec has many implementations.one of the common IPsec
implementations is Freeswan. IPsec provides encryption and authentication
services at the IP (Internet Protocol) level of the network protocol
stack. freeswan is a opensource IPsec implementation available from
www.freeswan.org.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/cryptography_article-5385.html


* Network Defenders Get Stuck in to Honeynet Challenge
July 22nd, 2002

In a further attempt to enable defenders to learn from the hacking
experience itself, The Honeynet Project, which was established by a group
of computer security researchers, set up the Reverse Challenge. The test
was to make a full analysis of an unknown program code found on a
compromised honeynet system, using the reverse engineering tools and
techniques used by security specialists.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/hackscracks_article-5373.html



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|  Cryptography:         |
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* What Does the Future Hold for PGP?
July 24th, 2002

Bad things do happen to good code. So learned Phil Zimmermann, author of
Pretty Good Privacy, which in the early 1990s became the de facto standard
for cryptology development on the Internet, according to analysts and user
groups,

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/cryptography_article-5387.html


* IETF puts weight behind Advanced Encryption Standard
July 23rd, 2002

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has published standards for
improvements to SSL which add support for the recently ratified Advanced
Encryption Standard. Request for Comments (RFC) 3268 adds support for AES
to the TLS protocol (Transport Layer Security - which was formerly known
as SSL).

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/cryptography_article-5383.html




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|  Vendors/Products:     |
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* Book: Hacking Exposed: Web Applications
July 25th, 2002

For the past five years a silent but revolutionary shift in focus has been
changing the information security industry and the hacking community
alike. As people came to grips with technology and process to secure their
networks and operating systems using firewalls, intrusion detection
systems and host hardening techniques, the world started exposing its
heart and soul on the Internet via a phenomenon called the world wide web.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-5396.html




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|  General:              |
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* Deal struck for security alerts
July 26th, 2002

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers today
announced it has signed an agreement with the primary federal
infrastructure security analysis and warning center so that individual
states can receive alerts on cyber and physical threats.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/government_article-5410.html


* Finally.real security standards
July 26th, 2002

Last week's announcement by the Center for Internet Security that it was
releasing its long-awaited security standards is good news for everyone.
Everyone, that is, except the Forces of Evil, in the form of hackers,
virus writers, and worm purveyors.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-5409.html


* Executives Advised to Take Role in Internet Security
July 25th, 2002

Internet security issues need to be addressed in boardrooms and executive
suites, not just data centers and network storage closets. That's the
message one industry organization is trying to convey by targeting the
upper echelon of management with a guide on how to ward off potential
threats.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/government_article-5398.html


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