Re: Networking Pearl Harbor in the Making

["Eric Germann" <ekgermann () cctec com>]

Looks like vendor J is going to benefit from the issues laid out for
Vendor C.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/110405-juniper-cisco-hacker.html



> At 08:52 AM 11/7/2005, you wrote:
> > On Mon, Nov 07, 2005 at 06:43:35AM -0500, J. Oquendo wrote:
> > > the center of the information security vortex. Because IOS controls
> > the
> > > routers that underpin most business networks as well as the Internet,
> >
> >         I think in general this is an argument against converged
> > networks,
> > the added complexity and outages may not be worth the gains..
>
> It is an argument for proper patching policy and procedures. There is
> no zero day exploit for this exploit and to my knowledge, there
> hasn't been one yet which came out at the same time as the advisory
> for ANY major vendor although the window is shrinking. All worms and
> other exploits which have achieved press coverage and caused major
> network disruption would have been avoided by proper patching. All of
> our network is now patched for the latest Cisco advisory. We were
> already running fixed code on a few routers when the advisory came
> out so we knew the code was stable and moved to it on all other
> boxes. I understand that not everyone can act as quickly as we do,
> but to delay patching indefinitely until the problem occurs - for
> "stability" reasons is not the solution either. Better code is part
> of the solution and teaching and enforcing proper programming
> techniques to create secure code in the first place are just part of
> the solution. Getting people to install (so far) secure code is
> another bigger problem which can be solved today. I think all the
> major vendors are aware of the extent of the problem and are making
> their systems more secure by auditing their existing code more
> thoroughly as well as teaching their programmers to code securely in
> the first place.
>
> -Robert
>
>
> Tellurian Networks - The Ultimate Internet Connection
> http://www.tellurian.com | 888-TELLURIAN | 973-300-9211
> "Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin