vulnerability of Linux

[Steffen Kluge]

On Wed, 2005-11-30 at 10:36 +0800, John Summerfied wrote:
> I had some difficulty accessing material outside of /var/www as user 
> Apache, on WBEL.

Maybe exploiting the hypothetical kernel bug doesn't require access to
anything particular in the filesystem...

> Because the risk of breaking things, especially with Fedora, is greater.

This hasn't been my experience.

> I have seen two successful attacks against Linux systems in the time 
> since I deployed my first Linux server, running RHL 4.0.

I've seen many more. Linux boxes get rooted, en masse and all the time.
Running software with known vulnerabilities is a major factor in this.

> Both were on account of weak passwords.

This is what's left after you patch known vulnerable software. That and
0-day exploits.

> OTOH I cannot count the number of broken systems I've seen when upgrades 
> failed, when upgrades succeeded but their content was broken, when 
> hardware failed.

Of all the servers I manage (and all of them use automatic updates) I
have never had any issues due to software updates. I concede, though,
that I don't use stock kernels on servers, but customised and hardened
ones. Hence, there have been no automatic kernel updates.

On workstations I use manual update (as I mentioned earlier) since I
wouldn't risk losing 3D screen savers due to a missing nvidia kernel
module, but I check daily.

> So there you are, no penetrations at all on account of software 
> vulnerabilities in umpteen years.

This is very atypical. Are your systems networked?

Cheers
Steffen.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/attachments/20051130/1a85693c/attachment-0001.sig>