Although this is about holes in the Windows OS, I'd be interested to know what those members of the list who know a bit about TCP etc. think about this, and if any of it applies to GNU/Linux. Follow this link to read an absolutely fascinating story about a denial of service attack on an windows internet security expert's web site and what he did about it. <http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm> Keith ____________ CONSOLATION, n. The knowledge that a better man is more unfortunate than yourself. Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary
Keith Watson <Keith.Watson@Kewill.com> sed:
Although this is about holes in the Windows OS, I'd be interested to know what those members of the list who know a bit about TCP etc. think about this, and if any of it applies to GNU/Linux.
Any host with an internet connection is vulnerable to this kind of attack, it has nothing to do with holes in the operating system itself - no matter how good/secure your OS is, you can't stop the packets from hitting your connection. Dalnet recently suffered a similar kind of attack, btw, and they're primarily BSD based. If you are asking whether GNU/Linux boxes can be used as drones in this kind of attack, then this thread should be named "Is GNU/Linux more secure than Windows?".
Follow this link to read an absolutely fascinating story about a denial of service attack on an windows internet security expert's web site and what he did about it. <http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm>
Keith
lewis -- Lewis Collard <lewis@zquack.net>
From: Lewis Collard
If you are asking whether GNU/Linux boxes can be used as drones in this kind of attack, then this thread should be named "Is GNU/Linux more secure than Windows?".
:o) Keith ____________ Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together.
On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 04:20:42PM -0000, Keith Watson wrote:
From: Lewis Collard
If you are asking whether GNU/Linux boxes can be used as drones in this kind of attack, then this thread should be named "Is GNU/Linux more secure than Windows?".
:o)
Its irrelevant either way, all OS are completely insecure if they are not maintained and observed etc. Windows makes a few more mistakes out of the box because of "ease of use" possibly but then most operating systems if they are not patched/maintained etc. etc. after install will be just as crackable as each other sooner or later. Even OpenBSD which had a perfect record for around 7 years had a remote root exploit in the default install, just because the OpenBSD team are more proactive about security didn't mean you were safe. The day that security hole was found OpenBSD became critically insecure and was as insecure as anything else. Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem
From: Adam Bower
On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 04:20:42PM -0000, Keith Watson wrote:
From: Lewis Collard
If you are asking whether GNU/Linux boxes can be used as drones in this kind of attack, then this thread should be named "Is GNU/Linux more secure than Windows?".
:o)
Its irrelevant either way, all OS are completely insecure if they are not maintained and observed etc. Windows makes a few more mistakes out of the box because of "ease of use" possibly but then most operating systems if they are not patched/maintained etc. etc. after install will be just as crackable as each other sooner or later.
Even OpenBSD which had a perfect record for around 7 years had a remote root exploit in the default install, just because the OpenBSD team are more proactive about security didn't mean you were safe. The day that security hole was found OpenBSD became critically insecure and was as insecure as anything else.
Yes, agree completely. What interested me in the original article was the description of how he went about investigating the attack and the tools and techniques he used. There's probably a number of ALUGgers (!? - spell checker suggests 'sluggers' :o) ) to whom this would all seem obvious and intuitive but, having never really studied TCP to any great depth, it was fascinating to me. Incidentally, is The Cuckoo's Egg as good a read? Regards, Keith ____________ A flash of lightning - into the gloom, the heron's cry. Basho
On Tue, 25 Mar 2003, Keith Watson wrote:
Incidentally, is The Cuckoo's Egg as good a read?
Vastly superior. And in the words of Unix Support here at Cambridge, `Do try the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.' -- David Redhouse, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge 0791 9058197 dir21@cam.ac.uk http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/
On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 03:43:12PM -0000, Keith Watson wrote:
Although this is about holes in the Windows OS, I'd be interested to know what those members of the list who know a bit about TCP etc. think about this, and if any of it applies to GNU/Linux.
Follow this link to read an absolutely fascinating story about a denial of service attack on an windows internet security expert's web site and what he did about it. <http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm>
I read this last year and it is a decent read.. but I felt that he was asking for the trouble ;) And yet again..... the FBI are _stupid_.. if you read the book 'the cuckoo's egg' then you can see why they are like that. -- (o_ - Craig Butcher //\ - IT Technician / Unix Support MTH/ENV @ UEA V_/_ - http://www.wizball.co.uk - Using Gentoo GNU/Linux
participants (5)
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Adam Bower -
Craig -
D.I. Redhouse -
Keith Watson -
Lewis Collard