Linux Security Week - February 10th 2003

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

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|  LinuxSecurity.com                            Weekly Newsletter     |
|  February 10th, 2003                           Volume 4, Number 6n  |
|                                                                     |
|  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 "How to Build,
Install, Secure & Optimize Apache," "Secure your DNS - replace BIND," "The
Great IDS Debate : Signature Analysis Versus Protocol Analysis," and "Know
Your Enemy: Learning with VMware."


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LINUX ADVISORY WATCH:
This week, advisories were released for cvs, mcrypt, slocate, qt-dcgui,
bladeenc, cim, mysql, kernel, kerberos, php, OpenLDAP, windowmaker, xpdf.
The distributors include Caldera, Conectiva, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Mandrake,
and Red Hat.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/forums_article-6691.html


Review: Absolute PC Security and Privacy - Miller never knew much about
viruses, or took them seriously, until a friend got infected and it turned
out to be more of a nuisance than he thought. So he decided to write a
book about them. And also about spam, since he was annoyed by that, too.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/feature_stories/feature_story-136.html

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Review: Mastering Network Security, Second Edition - The introduction
states that this book is aimed at systems administrators who are not
security experts, but have some responsibility for ensuring the integrity
of their systems. That would seem to cover most sysadmins.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/feature_stories/feature_story-137.html




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| Host Security News: | <<-----[ Articles This Week ]-------------
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* How to Build, Install, Secure & Optimize PHP
February 6th, 2003

NOC submits When you need to add some popular web service to your web
server, you will inevitably find that PHP is required and that you need to
install it with Apache. In this tutorial we discuss about the way to
integrate, secure, and optimize it with Apache 2.x.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/documentation_article-6685.html


* How to Build, Install, Secure & Optimize Apache 2.x
February 6th, 2003

Apache is the most widely used HTTP-server in the world today. It
surpasses all free and commercial competitors on the market, and provides
a myriad of features; more than the nearest opponent could give you on a
UNIX variant. It is also the most used web server for a Linux system.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/documentation_article-6686.html


* Securing & Optimizing Linux: The Ultimate Solution v2.0
February 6th, 2003

Mastering security with Linux and getting the maximum out of your system
have never been easier. Securing & Optimizing Linux: The Ultimate Solution
(v2.0) has been written and achieved with tightening security to an
incomparable level in mind.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/documentation_article-6687.html


* Secure your DNS - replace BIND
February 5th, 2003

BIND has become the most popular DNS server on the Internet. It is also a
favorite hacker target. For organisations that require a more secure DNS
infrastructure, the djbdns package may be the answer.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/server_security_article-6680.html


* Securing Systems with chroot
February 4th, 2003

One popular technique crackers use to compromise machines is exploiting
buffer overflows. Buffer overflows are programming bugs which often plague
software written with the C language, which makes such mistakes easy to
make. Once you are in the chrooted shell, you only have access to the
chrooted area. There is no way to escape it; you are in the jail.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/host_security_article-6662.html



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| Network Security News: |
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* How To Build a Secure WLAN
February 9th, 2003

Wireless LANs have experienced tremendous growth since the introduction of
the 802.11b wireless networking standard spurred the development of a wide
range of "Wi-Fi" solutions developed by network equipment vendors.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-6698.html


* Through The Fog... Public Key Infrastructure
February 6th, 2003

Security is a strange phenomenon in IT. Like a Will O' The Wisp, it's
elusive. And so we are faced with the promise and the reality of Public
Key Infrastructures (PKIs) - such a useful, powerful technology, coupled
with near total apathy on the part of the user community to implement it.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/cryptography_article-6689.html


* IM A Rampant Security Risk
February 6th, 2003

Instant messaging (IM) is taking off in companies but self-installed
consumer versions of software that allows this type of communication are
posing a "rampant security risk" on networks.  Already some companies see
IM as a time wasting technology - as was the case when email, web access
and even the telephone were first put on workers' desks - but the latest
warning, levelled by Blue Coat Systems, is based on three key factors.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-6690.html


* The Great IDS Debate : Signature Analysis Versus Protocol Analysis
February 6th, 2003

Intrusion detection systems (IDS) have rapidly become a crucial component
of any network defense strategy. Over the past few years, their popularity
has soared as vendors have refined their results and increased performance
capabilities. At the heart of intrusion detection systems lies the
analysis engine.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/intrusion_detection_article-6682.html


* The Crypto Gardening Guide and Planting Tips
February 5th, 2003

There has been a great deal of difficulty experienced in getting research
performed by cryptographers in the last decade or so (beyond basic
algorithms such as SHA and AES) applied in practice.  The reason for this
is that cryptographers don't work on things that implementors need because
it's not cool, and implementors don't use what cryptographers design
because it's not useful or sufficiently aligned with real-world
considerations to be practical.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/cryptography_article-6679.html


* Safety: Open Networks Pose Dilemma
February 5th, 2003

If you want to know how insecure today's wireless networks are, just ask
the people who make it their mission to locate the access points
designated by companies and consumers around the world.


http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-6675.html


* Know Your Enemy: Learning with VMware
February 4th, 2003

Virtual Honeynets are a solution that allow you to run a complete Honeynet
with multiple operating systems on the same physical computer. First
discussed in the paper Know Your Enemy: Virtual Honeynets, these solutions
have the advantage of being easier to deploy and simpler to manage.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/intrusion_detection_article-6669.html


* SANS Webcast:  Top 10 Unix Vulnerabilities
February 3rd, 2003

Worried about the state of Unix security at your site but unsure where to
begin? The top 10 Unix vulnerabilities from the SANS "Top 20" list make an
excellent starting point. Listen as Hal Pomeranz, the author of SANS' Unix
Security Track, explains the vulnerabilities and provides valuable
pointers on how to correct or mitigate these vulnerabilities on your
systems.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-6660.html



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| General News:          |
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* Mitnick freedom welcomed by his website defacement.
February 8th, 2003

"Dear Kevin, welcome to the free world. In order to let you feel more
comfortable, we defaced your website www.defensivethinking.com. PS: your
security skills are a little rusty, arent' they?" This was the meaning of
the message posted by hacker BugBear on Mitnick's website as you can see
by the mirror taken by zone-h.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/hackscracks_article-6697.html


* Slammer: Why Security Benefits From Proof Of Concept Code
February 7th, 2003

The UK security expert who discovered the flaw which was exploited by the
Slammer worm has concluded it does more good than harm to publish proof of
concept code.In a posting to BugTraq, David Litchfield of NGSSoftware
expressed concerns that his proof of concept code was used as a template
by unknown vandals in creating the destructive Slammer worm.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/security_sources_article-6692.html


* Assessing The Threat: Symantec's 2003 Security Report
February 5th, 2003

The latest Symantec threat assessment seems to suggest that businesses are
more vulnerable, but better protected than ever before. It also reveals
that businesses are in more danger of being attacked from sources within
the US than any other country, and that the use of wireless and instant
messaging technologies has rendered companies especially vulnerable.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/forums_article-6678.html


* Prelude IDS Yoann Vandoorselaere Interview
February 4th, 2003

My name is Yoann Vandoorselaere, I live in France and I'm the founder and
main developer of the Prelude Intrusion Detection System. I've worked on
many free software project, such as libsafe, libpcap (a library for packet
capture), the Nautilus file manager, OMS (Open Media System), libvo, the
Linux kernel and others.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/general_article-6672.html


* Openwall GNU/Linux Solar Designer Interview
February 4th, 2003

I generally prefer to speak about things I do rather than about myself.
For the past 6 years I've been spending much of my time on computer and
network security. In particular, I've been developing free Unix security
tools and other (non-security) software designed to be safe to use, as
well as making existing software and technologies safer to use
(discovering, dealing with, and sometimes publicizing vulnerabilities
whenever that seemed appropriate).

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/general_article-6671.html


* February Honeynet Scan of the Month
February 4th, 2003

We are excited to announce the SotM challenge for the Month of February
2003. Sponsored by the Digital Forensic Research Workshop, this month's
challenge is a continuation of the October 2002 challenge (Scan 24). It is
not necessary for you to have attempted and or completed the October 2002
challenge. Based on the police report and recovered evidence, your mission
is to answer a series of questions pertaining to the case. This month's
challenge is rated Intermediate to Advance.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/intrusion_detection_article-6668.html

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