Linux Security Week: January 24th 2005

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

The Honeypot Project has added fuel to the debate over which is more secureÑLinux or WindowsÑwith findings that unpatched Linux systems can be on the Internet for months before being successfully attacked while Windows systems have been compromised in as little as hours.

Oracle Corp. late Tuesday issued a "critical patch update" to address 23 security holes in its database and application server products.

Security company Immunity says it has found several vulnerabilities in Darwin, the implementation of Unix that underlies Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system.

Imagine that you deliver an application with 100%, instant-on availability. Security is rock-solid. Costs are dropping. Users never complain. And anytime you upgrade, even if you buy software and gear with new features from a different vendor, user acceptance is always immediate and training virtually nil.

news/network-security/voip-is-scary

Detecting network intrusions is no longer enough. Smart organizations aim to prevent them. No wonder: The lag between vulnerability announcement, patch release and exploit is shrinking like a cheap trade-show T-shirt. The Blaster attack came only 25 days after the patch was released, and Sasser was even faster--18 days. In March, the Witty worm struck a buffer-overflow vulnerability one day after the flaw was discovered.

The underground world of the computer hacker may seem like a place where chaos rules, but the reality is there's a method to the hacker's perceived madness. And understanding that method is critical to knowing how best to respond to a skilled attacker.

news/vendors-products/notes-from-security-school

How safe is the router? Not too safe. From a security standpoint, 2005 is the year that the router becomes the Achilles heel of the network, says Dan Jackson, president and COO of DeepNines Technologies, the only company capable of protecting networks from in front of the router.

news/vendors-products/router-protection-is-necessary-in-2005

Linux systems are getting tougher for hackers to crack, security experts have reported today.

Last year, a computer worm that conducts automated reconnaissance appeared; it uses the Google Inc. search engine to automatically find Web sites running vulnerable bulletin-board software and then defaces them. The financial-services industry noticed a spike last fall in phishing attempts to steal money from customers' accounts and put the blame on a new toolkit that made it easier to set up such scams.

Attackers are no longer bothering to attack average Linux systems, because there's so much more money to be made from invading Windows, according to security researchers.

FBI surveillance experts have put their once-controversial Carnivore Internet surveillance tool out to pasture, preferring instead to use commercial products to eavesdrop on network traffic, according to documents released Friday.

news/government/fbi-retires-its-carnivore

Security-minded US decorators' supply outfit Force Field Wireless claims to have developed a DIY solution to the international menace of marauding geek wardrivers - DefendAir paint "laced with copper and aluminum fibers that form an electromagnetic shield, blocking most radio waves and protecting wireless networks".

This article reviews common issues of wireless security, and shows how to use open source software to suss out wireless networks, get information about them, and start recognizing common security problems. You will learn how to build a lightweight wireless sniffer that runs on open source software and, see how simple it is to interact with wireless networks.

An IT security expert, an academic and the U.K. government's cybercrime unit will give Londoners an introduction to the security dangers of wireless networking on ThursdayÑwith the star of the show being an attack method dubbed the "Evil Twin."

Wireless networks giving computer users Internet access from anywhere in the home could expose them to eavesdropping, and programmers should make their security software easier to use, researchers say.

The original plan for this column was to write it at my neighborhood Starbucks while sipping down some good old French Roast and getting my blood caffeine level into the quadruple digits. Alas, it was not to be. My T-Mobile account seems to have expired; the Washington, DC, area was clobbered by a massive 3-inch snowfall, making travel impossible; and worst of all, Starbucks has all those high-carb goodies there at the coffee counter. I couldn't take the risk.