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Linux Security Week: February 18th, 2008
Source: LinuxSecurity.com Contributors - Posted by Benjamin D. Thomas
This week, perhaps the most interesting articles include "Password Hasher Firefox Extension," "Role-based access control in SELinux," and "Patching Linux Kernel, Local Root Exploit."
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Having a great defense involves proper detection and recognition of an attack. In our security world we have great IDS tools to properly recognize when we are being attacked as well as firewalls to prevent such attacks from happening. However, certain attacks are not blindly thrown at you - a good attacker knows that a certain amount of reconnaissance and knowledge about your defenses greatly increases the chances of a successful attack. How would you know if someone is scanning your defenses? Is there any way to properly respond to such scans? You bet there is...
Open Source Tool of February: Nmap! - This February, the team at Linuxsecurity.com has chosen NMAP as the Open Source Security Tool of the Month!
In January, we chose GnuPG in part because it had just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Well, it wasn't alone. As of this past December Nmap ("Network Mapper"), the free and open source utility for network exploration and auditing, celebrated its 10th Anniversary as well! And because of its popularity, chances are very good that you've already used NMAP for quite some time. Even if you have, it's always good to take a look at how it all got started and what it's all about...
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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.
EnGarde Secure Community v3.0.18 Now Available! (Dec 4)
Guardian Digital is happy to announce the release of EnGarde Secure Community 3.0.18 (Version 3.0, Release 18). This release includes the brand new Health Center, new packages for FWKNP and PSAD, updated packages and bug fixes, some feature enhancements to Guardian Digital WebTool and the SELinux policy, as well as other new features.
In distribution since 2001, EnGarde Secure Community was one of the very first security platforms developed entirely from open source, and has been engineered from the ground-up to provide users and organizations with complete, secure Web functionality, DNS, database and e-mail security, integrated intrusion detection and SELinux policies and more.
Well seen as though we were talking about breaking passwords, here’s a tool for Firefox to help you manage your more secure passwords.Better security without bursting your brain Password Hasher is a Firefox security extension for generating site-specific strong passwords from one (or a few) master key(s).
I am glad to see Firefox extensions for helping network security. Do you have any favorites?
Serge E. Hallyn, in his follow up to SELinux from Scratch goes into more detail on how best to utilize SELinux to its fullest potential. In this particular example, he uses the metaphor of writing a policy over a cash-register system... Very useful overview indeed.
The security policy implemented in Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is type enforcement (TE) under a layer of role-based access control (RBAC). (SELinux also orthogonally implements multi-level security (MLS), which is outside the scope of this article.) TE is the most visible, and therefore the most well known, server because it enforces fine-grained permissions: when something breaks because of unexpected access denials, TE is most likely responsible. In TE, a process's security domain (its domain of influence over the system) is determined by the task's history and the currently executing program.
Patching Linux Kernel, Local Root Exploit (Feb 13)
Patches for a much publicized Linux kernel local root exploit were released today as 2.6.24.2, 2.6.23.16, and 2.6.22.18. The latest bug, labeled as CVE-2008-0600, was introduced by the vmsplice() system call and added into the 2.6 kernel in 2.6.17. It is the third in a series of root exploits surrounding the same system call, the two earlier bugs being CVE-2008-0009 and CVE-2008-0010. Easily obtained exploits exist for both the older CVE-2008-0010 which affected the 2.6.23 and 2.6.24 kernels, and the latest CVE-2008-0600, allowing a local non-root user to gain root permissions.
You mostly likely heard about the local root exploit patch which was released a few days ago. Any exploit dealing with the root users can be a serious problem. Have you patched your Linux Kernel yet?
Mozilla Dismisses New Firefox Flaw Warning (Feb 12)
Published reports of an information leakage vulnerability affecting fully patched versions of the open-source Firefox browser have been greatly exaggerated, according to Mozilla chief evangelist Mike Shaver.
Shaver's sharp retort follows the release of an advisory by hacker Ronald van den Heetkamp claiming that the most recent Firefox 2.0.0.12 is susceptible to a bug that allows hackers to view sensitive information on a target machine.
