Quote:
Originally posted by DeadKenny
All it requires is an unpatched server (web, ftp, telnet, etc), a buffer overflow and privallige elevation to root and they're in. They can cause as much damage as they want.
Don't kid yourselfs that linux is secure. It's not. Just that few people have "got it in" for linux.
I use linux, unix and windows systems, and no matter what I always look out for the latest patches. I'd be a fool to just sit there with a smug "ah, I'm okay I use linux" attitude. Of all things I concentrate very carefully on Apache patches as that's the one thing exposed to the outside world on my system.
And has everyone ensured they've got the ICMP patch for their linux based routers? Very few people know about that one and many assume a dedicated linux router/firewall is rock solid and never needs patching, yet this will open their entire network up.
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Yup this is the point I was trying to make. All OS's have their vunerabilities, etc.
Many Linux / Unix users have become lax because of this perceived security that Linux has gained. Site like astalavista, neworder, etc are full of exploits and vunerabilities for all OS's including Linux, Win, FreeBSD, etc.
As Linux achieves more attention for home users then I think we will start to see more virus / trojan activity as well as more vulnerability exploits, etc.
I think that the difference is that Linux is proabably more secure out-of-the-box so to speak than NT / XP is, but both can be made pretty secure with some work and the application of the constant security updates that both formats see.