Fork bombing a Linux machine as a non-root user
M.Rudra
dr.rudra at gmail.com
Fri Mar 18 18:08:31 UTC 2005
Hello All,
When my Windows system crashed recently, a patient of mine introduced
me to Linux as a secure OS but today I read an article on fork bombing
a Linux system.
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/308?ref=rssdebia
As a non-geek user I am concerned as I thought Linux is very secure.
So I googled "fork bombing" and after reading them, I have some doubts :
1] Is this applicable to newer version of FC3/4 or will this affect
older stable versions too.
2] The article mentions Debian survived among others but some of the
Linux distributions are vulnerable to fork bombing. Is FC a part of
the latter ?
3] If a non -root 'user' can bring down the system, then can a person
without login facility bring down the system too if the machine is
connected to the Internet ?.
4] What precautions must one take for [a] general PC [b] servers. do
they differ ?
5] Does one have to download a patch for the kernel ? If we install an
older stable version of the distro will the system be safe from such
an attack ?
All comments and pointers to online resources are welcome.
Thanks for reading.
--
MR
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