linux security

[Travis Saling]

>
>
>Remote attacks are only possible against exposed services.  Unix machines
>tend to offer lots more of those, whereas Windows 9x (for example) only
>exposed a couple, and then only if file sharing was enabled.  So yeah, it
>wouldn't surprise me that more application level exploits happen on Unix
>than on Windows.  But that's got nothing to do with the integrity of the
>operating system.  For the record, OS-level exploits of NT-class systems
>are pretty darned rare, too.
>  
>

I think it is also worth pointing out that while older versions of Red 
Hat did have a lot of services available by default, in their recent 
versions (certainly since 7.2) the default install has almost everything 
turned OFF, and sendmail is configured by default (in RH) to only allow 
access from the local box.  So I'm not sure the argument that "Linux 
exposes a lot of services by default" is necessarily valid anymore - at 
least on a Red Hat box.

-- 
Travis Saling
Webmaster, UW Electrical Engineering
trav at u.washington.edu / webmaster at ee.washington.edu
(206) 543-8984