[95963] in RedHat Linux List
Re: Security for (SOHO) Newbies
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (flaw@colba.net)
Thu Oct 22 14:09:46 1998
From: flaw@colba.net
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 14:06:06 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: flaw@colba.net
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
In-Reply-To: <19981022103335.B18456@adbvdesign.analog.com>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
On 22 Oct, Thomas Ribbrock (Design/DEG) wrote:
> John Lewis writes:
>> Hi
>>
> [...]
>> What, if anything, should be removed from the system to make it more secure
>> and what sort of modifications should be made to config files for services,
>> protocols etc. I am guessing that the standard installation loaded some files
>> that are really only needed for networking. If netscape is the only interface
>> with the ISP do I need to keep sendmail, pine elm etc that are there by
>> default.
>
> Errm, I wonder if you mix up a few things here... "sendmail" is definitely
> not a program you should use from the command line. It's rather a program
> running in the background/as daemon/on demand whenever mail needs to be
> transferred - not as an end user program. To my knowledge, even Netscape
> uses sendmail to *send* mail (while it may be able to *receive* mail
> directly via pop (don't know enough about imap to say anything about it),
> and even if Netscape is able not to use sendmail, removing sendmail (without
> replacing it with alternative MTA (Mail Transfer Agents) like e.g. qmail)
> would leave you stranded with Netscape (or similar programs), as most other
> MUA (Mail User Agents) rely on an MTA to be installed to send/receive their
> mail.
>
>Just my £0.02,
>
>Thomas
Netscape (and some other programs such as XFMail and Pine) don't need
sendmail, qmail, or any other MTA to be installed in order to send
mail. Netscape (and these other programs) can send mail directly though
your ISP's SMTP server. Therefore, you don't necessarily need to keep
sendmail if you don't want to.
However, as Thomas noted, some programs such as TkRat (my GUI
preference) do need sendmail (or some other MTA) to be installed and
properly configured in order to send mail.
I personally prefer to use sendmail (despite certain security risks)
because it allows me to use whatever mail programs I desire.
At any rate I believe it's useful to learn how to configure and
use sendmail whether you intend to use it or not.
fj
--
____________________________________________________________
/ _( ( __ ___ __ )---)--- flaw@colba.net ---)---)
| |_ ) )/ _` \ \ /\ / / ( http://www.colba.net/~tanh/flaw/ (
| _( (< (_| |\ V V / ) http://members.xoom.com/flaw/ )
|_| )_)\__,_| \_/\_/ (--------(-------(((-------(--------(
--
PLEASE read the Red Hat FAQ, Tips, Errata and the MAILING LIST ARCHIVES!
http://www.redhat.com http://archive.redhat.com
To unsubscribe: mail redhat-list-request@redhat.com with
"unsubscribe" as the Subject.
