[76709] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: New Computer? Six Steps to Safer Surfing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Adrian Chadd)
Tue Dec 21 04:40:44 2004
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 09:40:10 +0000
From: Adrian Chadd <adrian@creative.net.au>
To: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <20041221093105.GG23515@momentum.poptix.net>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
On Tue, Dec 21, 2004, Matthew S. Hallacy wrote:
>
> On Tue, Dec 21, 2004 at 06:17:42AM +0000, Christopher L. Morrow wrote:
>
> > and Sean will/maybe-has-already pointed out that "unix" (in all it's
> > glorious variations) is no more secure than anything else... as much as
> > it saddens me to say all that it sure seems to be the truth. :(
>
> Only if you turn on all the services (running as the root user), then fire
> up XF86, a web browser, and email client (also running as root).
No, wrong. Modern botnet type software can run as a non privileged user
on most Unixes. It still has enough privilege to cause great harm.
Spyware may require a little more privilege to be a bother.
You only need to "root" a unix machine if you wish to take it over and 'hide'
what you're doing or you want to use it or the information on it as a springboard
for further attacks.
Last post on this thread, its losing its N meaning.
Adrian
--
Adrian Chadd "You don't have a TV? Then what's
<adrian@creative.net.au> all your furniture pointing at?"
