Linux Security Week - August 11th 2003

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

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|  LinuxSecurity.com                            Weekly Newsletter     |
|  August 11th, 2003                             Volume 4, 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 "Maintaining
System Integrity During Forensics," "A Balanced Approach to Performing a
Security Assessment," "Host-based Intrusion Detection With samhain," and
"Reducing Human Factor Mistakes."

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LINUX ADVISORY WATCH:
This week, advisories were released for wget, postfix, kernel, atari800,
xfstt, kdelibs, mindi, phpgroupware, eroaster, libc, kdelibs, php, core,
stunnel, man-db, Konqueror, and wuftpd. The distributors include
Conectiva, Debian, Guardian Digital's EnGarde Secure Linux, FreeBSD,
Mandrake, NetBSD, Red Hat, Slackware, SuSe, and TurboLinux.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/forums_article-7766.html

-->  Take advantage of the LinuxSecurity.com Quick Reference Card!
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| Host Security News: | <<-----[ Articles This Week ]-------------
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* Security flaws under the microscope
August 8th, 2003

A study unveiled at the Black Hat Briefings conference in Las Vegas last
week paints a grim picture of network security problems.  Among the
study's surprising results: Some kinds of computer security
vulnerabilities--especially ones with an aggressive "exploit" (something
that takes advantage of the vulnerability, such as a worm or virus)--may
plague computer networks indefinitely.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/forums_article-7770.html


* Out, Out, Damned Spam
August 7th, 2003

It was May, 1978. Lauren Weinstein was among those developing an early
version of the Internet when an e-mail popped into his box. It was the
first spam ever -- a pitch from Digital Equipment Corp. sent, literally,
to everyone on the fledgling Net. "People thought it was a little bit
annoying but sort of amusing," Weinstein says.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/privacy_article-7762.html


* NIAP Certification Becoming a Priority
August 7th, 2003

The government's plan to pressure software vendors to build more secure
products seems to be gathering a bit of momentum. A major part of the
National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, the idea involves using market
pressures and the government's purchasing power to influence vendors'
development practices.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/government_article-7760.html


* Spam and Viruses: Unholy Matrimony, Part 1
August 6th, 2003

Make no mistake about it -- spam and viruses are deliberate, malicious
assaults on our systems that often work together to penetrate and
compromise our networks. A popular dirty trick by spammers is to plant
malicious code in their spew to exploit recipients' systems. Remember
jeem.mail.pv? Proxy-guzu?

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/privacy_article-7758.html


* Maintaining System Integrity During Forensics
August 4th, 2003

Deciding how to maintain the integrity of a system for use in a forensic
examination can be a little like deciding which club to use to get out of
the rough on the last hole of a golf tournament, i.e. the stakes are high
and you never know if you've made the right choice until it's too late to
change your mind (note: this analogy only works if you play golf as badly
as I do.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/server_security_article-7741.html


* LDAP Injection
August 4th, 2003

This a paper about how a hacker uses LDAP Injection to Steal Your Data and
Bypass authentication.  It's as simple as placing additional LDAP Query
commands into input fields in Web Form or Query strings allowing hackers
complete access to your backend systems!

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/server_security_article-7746.html


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| Network Security News: |
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* A Balanced Approach to Performing a Security Assessment
August 8th, 2003

Fundamentally, there exist just two basic approaches to performing
security assessments: vulnerability priority and asset priority. While
these two approaches will eventually (if taken to their ultimate
conclusion) converge to the same result, it is rare for an organization to
hold the line and make the investment required to follow the process to
its finale.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-7767.html


* Sniffing with Net::Cap to stealthily managing iptables rules
remotely, Part 1
August 6th, 2003

In our saga that began several weeks ago, we're trying to create a
firewall setup that allows no inbound access by default that can be
modified remotely to allow a small window of inbound SSH connectivity.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-7755.html

* Lack of Security at Wireless Conferences
August 6th, 2003

During the 802.11 Planet Expo in Boston, wireless security company
AirDefense monitored WLAN activity and published their findings in the
July 2003 edition of WLAN Watch newsletter.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-7757.html

* Host-based Intrusion Detection With samhain
August 5th, 2003

Samhain is a wonderful GPL host-based intrusion detection system. Rather
than just comparing files with a known-good database, samhain can perform
centralized monitoring with encrypted TCP/IP communications, log to SQL
databases, compute cryptographic checksums of configuration files, use
stealth mode to disguise itself from intruders, and detect kernel
rootkits.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/intrusion_detection_article-7748.html


* Wireless security: Harder Than You Think
August 4th, 2003

Once more I sat at the control console and went through the D-Link
wireless access point's forms to enable WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)
encryption. I knew it wasn't exactly the best encryption on the planet,
but it was better than nothing at all, and the network I was working with
didn't handle much sensitive information anyway.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-7744.html


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| General Security News: |
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* Blogs: Another Tool in the Security Pro's Toolkit (Part Two)
August 7th, 2003

In my last column, I introduced you to blogging and blogs, and some of the
issues that security professionals should consider before starting their
own blogs. In this column we continue the discussion, and focus on blogs
that specialize in security.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-7761.html


* The Folly of Antispam Legislation
August 5th, 2003

> From a spam-viewing perspective, the average citizen, it would seem, is
aging, balding, out of shape, impotent, undereducated and has incurred
significant credit card debt through online encounters with other lusty
members of the human race.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/privacy_article-7749.html


* Demonstrating ROI for Penetration Testing (Part Two)
August 5th, 2003

There are two camps when it comes to demonstrating ROI for security
initiatives. One camp believes it is absolutely impossible, ridiculous and
suggests you should not even try. The other camp believes it is not only
possible but important and absolutely necessary.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-7750.html


* Linux Approved for Use On Most-sensitive Computers
August 5th, 2003

Linux software has been approved for use on the most sensitive computers
in corporations and the federal government, including those inside banks
and the Pentagon, an important step for software widely considered the top
rival to Microsoft Corp.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/general_article-7751.html


* Reducing Human Factor Mistakes
August 4th, 2003

Nowadays companies and organizations face the problem where massive
attempts at illegal intrusions hit their network on a daily basis. In
spite of the latest technological improvements in security, it's still the
network users who are often unknowingly inviting security breaches through
carelesnes and a lack of awareness.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-7713.html


-----


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