Do You Think Linux is Secure?
Linux has taken a couple of blows recently in the security department raising the question is Linux really secure? Pundits weighed in and opinions were about as diverse as the individuals. Much was rehash written every time this issue arises ranging from Linux permissions makes Linux more secure to Linux is only as secure as its administrator. But what do regular users think? That's what TuxRadar is asking this week in its Open Ballot.
One of the more interesting observations came from Kim Andersen who said that the diversity of Linux distributions is one reason why Linux is safer than Windows. For example, a malicious .deb will only work on Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Mepis, or other Debian system. RPM, YUM, Portage, Entropy, Pacman, slackpkg, etc. systems are immune. Tarballs are another subject.
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today's howtos
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Security is in the eye of the beholder
Most of the attacks which came out recently are not code exploits, but seem to rely on users whose credentials are compromised first, then escalating their privileges.
Your system security seems to depend, first, on the security consciousness of the users of your system. You can have the most secure software in the world, but if one of your users uses something like their first name as their login identity and password123 as their password, there is a hole in your security that any pwner can drive a fork-lift through.
On a stand-alone system, if you persist in booting without a password and running as a root-equivalent user, as Windows XP and Puppy Linux encourage you to do, you had best boot with a read-only boot system which even you can't change and be very careful which links you click on the Internet, or don't connect to the Internet at all!