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Measuring Security IT Success
In a time where budgets are constrained and Internet threats are on the rise, it is important for organizations to invest in network security applications that will not only provide them with powerful functionality but also a rapid return on investment.
In most organizations IT success is generally calculated through effectiveness, resource usage and, most importantly, how quickly the investment can be returned. To correctly quantify the ROI of information technology, organizations usually measure cost savings and increased profits since the initial implementation. Additionally, ROI can also be affected based on the overall impact the investment has on employee productivity and overall work environment of the company.
With regards to security IT purchases, however, it is much more difficult to calculate an accurate ROI. When it comes to securing a corporate network, it is nearly impossible to assign a dollar amount to the level of security necessary to keep organizations safe from increasing Internet threats. Making incorrect decisions in this area could lead to an exhaustion of resources or an oversight in specific areas needing protection, potentially resulting in debilitating and costly security breaches.
To avoid such situations, it is essential that all organizations invest in a solid infrastructure with flexibility and room for future expansion. In addition, leveraging open source solutions consistently deliver greater ROI, substantially increase security protection, and deliver better flexibility. Such an investment will fundamentally change how information is managed and present results in a more quantifiable metric when presenting to them management.
Dave Wreski
CEO Guardian Digital, Inc
Guardian Digital Makes Email Safe For Business - Microsoft 365, Goo....
LinuxSecurity.com Feature Extras:
Getting to Know Linux Security: File Permissions - Welcome to the first tutorial in the 'Getting to Know Linux Security' series. The topic explored is Linux file permissions. It offers an easy to follow explanation of how to read permissions, and how to set them using chmod. This guide is intended for users new to Linux security, therefore very simple. If the feedback is good, I'll consider creating more complex guides for advanced users. Please let us know what you think and how these can be improved.
The Tao of Network Security Monitoring: Beyond Intrusion Detection - To be honest, this was one of the best books that I've read on network security. Others books often dive so deeply into technical discussions, they fail to provide any relevance to network engineers/administrators working in a corporate environment. Budgets, deadlines, and flexibility are issues that we must all address. The Tao of Network Security Monitoring is presented in such a way that all of these are still relevant.
Encrypting Shell Scripts - Do you have scripts that contain sensitive information like passwords and you pretty much depend on file permissions to keep it secure? If so, then that type of security is good provided you keep your system secure and some user doesn't have a "ps -ef" loop running in an attempt to capture that sensitive info (though some applications mask passwords in "ps" output).
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Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com weekly security newsletter. The purpose of this document is to provide our readers with a quick summary of each week's most relevant Linux security headline.
| Conectiva | ||
| Conectiva: kernel Kernel fixes | ||
| 31st, March, 2005
The Linux kernel is responsible for handling the basic functions of the GNU/Linux operating system. |
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| Conectiva: MySQL Fixes for several mysql vulnerabilities | ||
| 4th, April, 2005
MySQL[1] is a very popular SQL database. This announcement fixes several vulnerabilities discovered in MySQL. |
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| Debian | ||
| Debian: New samba packages fix arbitrary code execution | ||
| 31st, March, 2005
Updated package. advisories/debian/debian-new-samba-packages-fix-arbitrary-code-execution-10804 |
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| Debian: New ImageMagick packages fix several vulnerabilities | ||
| 1st, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/debian/debian-new-imagemagick-packages-fix-several-vulnerabilities-74067 |
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| Debian: New krb5 packages fix arbitrary code execution | ||
| 1st, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/debian/debian-new-krb5-packages-fix-arbitrary-code-execution-52839 |
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| Debian: New remstats packages fix several vulnerabilities | ||
| 4th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/debian/debian-new-remstats-packages-fix-several-vulnerabilities |
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| Debian: New wu-ftpd packages fix denial of service | ||
| 4th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/debian/debian-new-wu-ftpd-packages-fix-denial-of-service |
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| Fedora | ||
| Fedora Core 2 Update: sharutils-4.2.1-18.1.FC2 | ||
| 1st, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-2-update-sharutils-421-181fc2-12-34-00-118777 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: sharutils-4.2.1-22.1.FC3 | ||
| 1st, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-sharutils-421-221fc3-12-35-00-118778 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: util-linux-2.12a-21 | ||
| 4th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-util-linux-212a-21-15-17-00-118791 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: util-linux-2.12a-23 | ||
| 4th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-util-linux-212a-23-19-04-00-118793 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: words-3.0-2.2 | ||
| 4th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-words-30-22-19-05-00-118794 |
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| Fedora Core 2 Update: gaim-1.2.1-1.fc2 | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-2-update-gaim-121-1fc2-10-46-00-118800 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: gaim-1.2.1-1.fc3 | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-gaim-121-1fc3-10-46-00-118801 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: e2fsprogs-1.36-1.FC3.1 | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-e2fsprogs-136-1fc31-10-47-00-118802 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: system-config-printer-0.6.116.1.4-1 | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
Bug-fix release. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-system-config-printer-0611614-1-11-26-00-118803 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: mysql-3.23.58-16.FC3.1 | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-mysql-32358-16fc31-14-37-00-118807 |
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| Fedora Core 2 Update: mysql-3.23.58-16.FC2.1 | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-2-update-mysql-32358-16fc21-14-38-00-118808 |
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| Fedora Core 3 Update: subversion-1.1.4-1.1 | ||
| 6th, April, 2005
This update includes the latest release of Subversion 1.1, including a number of bug fixes. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-subversion-114-11-14-26-00-118816 |
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| Gentoo | ||
| Gentoo: Gaim Denial of Service issues | ||
| 6th, April, 2005
Gaim contains multiple vulnerabilities that can lead to a Denial of Service. |
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| Gentoo: sharutils Insecure temporary file creation | ||
| 6th, April, 2005
The unshar utility is vulnerable to symlink attacks, potentially allowing a local user to overwrite arbitrary files. |
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| Mandrake | ||
| Mandrake: Updated ipsec-tools packages | ||
| 31st, March, 2005
A bug was discovered in the way that the racoon daemon handled incoming ISAKMP requests. It is possible that an attacker could crash the racoon daemon by sending a specially crafted ISAKMP packet. The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues. |
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| Mandrake: Updated libexif packages fix | ||
| 31st, March, 2005
A buffer overflow was discovered in the way libexif parses EXIF tags. An attacker could exploit this by creating a special EXIF image file which could cause image viewers linked against libexif to crash. The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues. |
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| Mandrake: Updated htdig packages fix | ||
| 31st, March, 2005
A cross-site scripting vulnerability in ht://dig was discovered by Michael Krax. The updated packages have been patched to correct this issue. |
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| Mandrake: Updated ImageMagick packages | ||
| 1st, April, 2005
A format string vulnerability was discovered in ImageMagick, in the way it handles filenames. An attacker could execute arbitrary code on a victim's machine provided they could trick them into opening a file with a special name (CAN-2005-0397). As well, Andrei Nigmatulin discovered a heap-based buffer overflow in ImageMagick's image handler. An attacker could create a special PhotoShop Document (PSD) image file in such a way that it would cause ImageMagick to execute arbitray code when processing the image (CAN-2005-0005). Other vulnerabilities were discovered in ImageMagick versions prior to 6.0: A bug in the way that ImageMagick handles TIFF tags was discovered. |
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| Mandrake: Updated grip packages fix | ||
| 1st, April, 2005
A buffer overflow bug was found by Dean Brettle in the way that grip handles data returned by CDDB servers. If a user connected to a malicious CDDB server, an attacker could execute arbitrary code on the user's machine. The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues. |
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| Red Hat | ||
| RedHat: Important: gtk2 security update | ||
| 1st, April, 2005
Updated gtk2 packages that fix a double free vulnerability are now available. This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-important-gtk2-security-update-76593 |
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| RedHat: Moderate: tetex security update | ||
| 1st, April, 2005
Updated tetex packages that fix several integer overflows are now available. This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-tetex-security-update-57894 |
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| RedHat: Low: curl security update | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
Updated curl packages are now available. This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-low-curl-security-update-RHSA-2005-340-01 |
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| RedHat: Important: gdk-pixbuf security update | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
Updated gdk-pixbuf packages that fix a double free vulnerability are now available. This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-important-gdk-pixbuf-security-update-16958 |
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| RedHat: Important: mysql-server security update | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
Updated mysql-server packages that fix several vulnerabilities are now available. This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-important-mysql-server-security-update-RHSA-2005-348-01 |
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| RedHat: Moderate: XFree86 security update | ||
| 6th, April, 2005
Updated XFree86 packages that fix a libXpm integer overflow flaw and a number of bugs are now available. This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-xfree86-security-update-23391 |
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| RedHat: Moderate: kdelibs security update | ||
| 6th, April, 2005
Updated kdelibs packages that fix a local denial of service issue are now available. This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-kdelibs-security-update-69675 |
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| SuSE | ||
| SuSE: ipsec-tools remote denial of service | ||
| 31st, March, 2005
Racoon is a ISAKMP key management daemon used in IPsec setups. |
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| SuSE: kernel local privilege escalation | ||
| 5th, April, 2005
This Linux kernel security update fixes a problem within the Bluetooth kernel stack which can be used by a local attacker to gain root access or crash the machine. |
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