Linux Vulnerabilities Creep Toward the Desktop

[Nomad559]

Linux Vulnerabilities Creep Toward the Desktop

As Linux increasingly hits the enterprise and consumer mainstream, a growing number of security threats are emerging which prey on holes in applications and files managed by desktop users.

On Wednesday of this week, Linux vendors Red Hat, Novell and Mandrakesoft released patches for several vulnerabilities. These threats ranged from the moderate to highly critical, as ranked by Danish security monitoring firm Secunia.

While some focused on network vulnerabilities familiar to any network administrator -- such as problems exploiting buffer overflow -- several holes were also found affecting common desktop applications and files.

"End users are inundated with applications which haven't been scrutinized properly," says Dave Wreski, CEO of open-source Internet security company Guardian Digital and the author of widely used Linux security documentation. "I think you're going to see an increase in the number of vulnerabilities as more people use Linux."

[McKenzie]

1. never log on as root

I have to use Winbloze right now because my $%£%&%$ modem isn't recognised by Red Hat, Xandros, or SuSE. But, when I am running Linux on the net I only do so through an account that has minimal priviliges. That limits damage if the system is compromised.

Linux users tend to be more net savvy than most. It's inevitable that the hacker community would eventually target Linux boxes though. I use Firestarter or carefully set up IPTables when Linux is net-ready.

The fact that the source code is available is both good, and bad. Good because loads of people can check for bugs. Bad because access to source code is the Holy Grail for any hacker.

That said, Linux is waaay better than Windoze for security. No ActiveX controls for starters and less virii issues. And, Opera can be d/loaded in a non-Java version which further enhances security.