WARNING:DO NOT UPGRADE TO CORE 4

[Mike McCarty]

Timothy Murphy wrote:

>Mike McCarty wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I wonder what security issues I have on my machine? There are
>>only three users defined for my machine who can actually log in,
>>to wit: root, jmccarty, and jjenning (a fellow I'm doing some
>>contract work for). None of the passwords for any of those users
>>is a word in any language. The paswords are 10 charactes long.
>>I have ADSL connections, with a D-Link wireless router between
>>my box and the ADSL modem. I have disabled the wireless part
>>of the router, and removed its antenna. Only the one machine
>>is actually connected to the router. I use Mozilla (cookies disabled,
>>java disabled) and Thunderbird (use server connections).
>>
>>So, what is my "vulnerability"?
>>
>>This is a serious question.
>>    
>>
>
>Are you running iptables?
>Do you have a firewall?
>  
>
How do I find out? The router *claims* to run a firewall. I dunno
whether FC2 runs one. I dunno what iptables is.

>I think you under-estimate the ingenuity of computer science students,
>many (most?) of whom had unhappy childhoods 
>and are trying to get back at their parents through you.
>  
>
I do no such thing. I have experience both with combating and writing
viruses. I used to be very active on the virus newsgroups. I have
been the initial reporter of three (3) DOS viruses, and written a 
cleaner for
two of them. When I invadvertently got Michaleangelo on a DOS machine,
and went through the grief of recovery (have you ever patched PKZIPPed
files in pieces, from multiple backups corrupted at different locations, 
until
they were clean?), I could not at that time find a cleaner (or even 
recognizer)
for Michaelangelo, so I disassembled the boot sector from an infected
floppy, and figured out how to "disinfect" the discs. I then wrote my own
disinfector and ran all my floppies (hundreds of them) through it. Took
a whole weekend. I then wrote a couple of viruses to infect various ways
in order to learn enough to protect myself.

I apparently didn't make myself clear when I pointed out that this
was a serious question.

>I agree with you about selinux. I'd like to install it, 
>but at the moment that just causes too many problems.
>
>  
>
That's the way it looks.

Mike

-- 
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This message made from 100% recycled bits.
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
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