kernel security

[ezeze5000]

I found this tidbit of information that might be of interest.


http://news.com.com/2061-10789_3-606313 ... ag=nl.e757

[slvrldy17]

I guess this just goes to show that as much as we would like to think otherwise that some attention to security is in order even for us Puppy users. Perhaps someone way more skilled than I am could look at some of the free antivirus applications out there like Avast and AVG that have Linux versions available with an eye toward making them into Dot Pups that would install easily and provide alternatives to the FProtect that is all we currently have. I've had excellent results with AVG in Windows and it would be my first choice if it were available for Puppy.

[Flash]

If this "virus" is the same one I read about a few days ago, it isn't really a virus because it requires the user to download and activate it, and it cannot replicate itself. Still, it does represent an example of malware that can in theory affect both Windows and Linux.

[slvrldy17]

is that reports of viruses and malware that can have an effect on Linux have been increasing slowly over the last few years. It's probably only a matter of time ( a long time I hope) before some lowlife writes and releases a program that will attack the Linux kernel specifically and thus screw up multiple distros based on a given version including Puppy. If I read this piece right this was more a "proof of concept" thing than anything else. But it does illustrate that we are not invulnerable.

[marksouth2000]

The quoted article was the result of research into how to create a Linux virus. This was conducted by a company that sells ... antivirus software. If this was the worst they could do, we have nothing to fear.

Clearly Linux use is growing to the stage that the antivirus companies are worried that their market is shrinking.

It's better not to spread anti-Linux news that comes from outside the Linux world, because the sources clearly have agendas that are of dubious honesty.

[slvrldy17]

"Better an ounce of prevention than a pound of cure". Ignoring the news doesn't make the outside world go away - it just leaves you really vulnerable when what you ignore bites you in the rear end. You see that a lot around an ER - they call it YMIS - short for Young Male Inmortality Syndrome. It's that attitude of "Nothing bad can happen to me because..." that gets you every time. Suit yourself - I for one will opt to stay informed. End of sermon.

[Pizzasgood]

Are you implying that I'm a mere mortal? Well, I guess it could be true.

I do wear a helmet when riding my bike, though. I've had enough close calls to warrent it (one nearly involving a moving cop car). I also learned about seatbelts the hard way as a child (between three and five). I was reaching for the hand-hold thing, but I missed and grabbed the door latch instead. Next thing I knew my feet were bouncing off the gravel and I was clinging onto that latch with everything I had. I've worn the belt ever since

In the computing world, Linux is my seatbelt and Puppy is my helmet. Linux and Puppy might not always save me, but neither will a seatbelt or helmet. They'll increase my chances though. I put the limit at wearing a helmet while biking, though. I don't do knee pads then and I won't with Puppy. When driving, I don't wear safety goggles, and I won't with Linux. Now, if I suddenly start falling on my knees or driving through clouds of eye irritants, I'll increase my protection.

Yeah, it might be learning the hard way, but the net hassle is less this way. Skinning my knees once while saving years of wearing knee pads is worth it. Smashing my head is not worth any amount of not wearing a helmet. Few things are worth using Windows, so I use Puppy. I'll risk a virus to get out of the hassle of virus protection until I get one.

[slvrldy17]

Pizza,
I regard my comment to Mark as the equivalent of wearing a helment when riding a bike - a reasonable precaution. Should we be paranoid? No! But keeping informed and taking reasonable precautions is the wise thing to do. Each of us needs to determine what level of risk we are comfortable with. Keeping current with the possible is part of that risk assessment. Guess you could say - "are you paranoid - or just painfully aware of lifes possibilities." I truly hope all your experiences in life are safe and easy ones. End of sermon.

[marksouth2000]

I regard my comment to Mark as the equivalent of wearing a helment when riding a bike - a reasonable precaution. Should we be paranoid? No! But keeping informed and taking reasonable precautions is the wise thing to do. Each of us needs to determine what level of risk we are comfortable with. Keeping current with the possible is part of that risk assessment. Guess you could say - "are you paranoid - or just painfully aware of lifes possibilities." I truly hope all your experiences in life are safe and easy ones. End of sermon.

You may wear a helment when you ride a bike. But do you carry a snakebite kit to go down to the supermarket? That's a different comparison, and an example of why analogy can be misleading.

Keeping current is a good idea. The article originally quoted has been widely analysed, not to say ridiculed, in the Linux press. So some specialists in a lab somewhere have built a virus that can infect your system if the root user deliberately installs it. That's bad. But a little better than Windows, where there are many thousands of wild viruses that spread silently without any user intervention. I prefer to take my chances with Linux, thanks.

[Pizzasgood]

I regard my comment to Mark as the equivalent of wearing a helment when riding a bike - a reasonable precaution. Should we be paranoid? No! But keeping informed and taking reasonable precautions is the wise thing to do. Each of us needs to determine what level of risk we are comfortable with. Keeping current with the possible is part of that risk assessment. Guess you could say - "are you paranoid - or just painfully aware of lifes possibilities." I truly hope all your experiences in life are safe and easy ones. End of sermon.

You may wear a helment when you ride a bike. But do you carry a snakebite kit to go down to the supermarket? That's a different comparison, and an example of why analogy can be misleading.

I actually covered that in my post, though not quite as clearly. That's what the bit about knee-pads and goggles was about. The way I see it, I already have my helmet on by using Puppy. Just using Puppy is a precaution. Further protection, to me anyway, is unwieldy. Others may have more valuable data or may exist in a more hostile environment, in which case they'd need more protection. As a "simple" home user, though, I would lose more than I stand to gain by messing with antivirus. Time/bandwidth spent updating definitions, cycles used to scan, etc. when there's an extremely small chance of my being infected in the immediate future. I believe the fancy term for this effect is called "Diminishing Marginal Return" (yes, the same concept from economics class). Initial protection makes a big difference, but as it increases it yields less benifit, until the benifit is actually offset by the cost. To me, that benifit is far to small to acknowledge. If I were running a business, it would be larger. If I ran a large corporation it would be much larger. But I don't, so I won't bother with it.
[/lecture]

I truly hope all your experiences in life are safe and easy ones.

Thanks. Does nearly running myself over with a tractor count as safe and easy? (Darn faulty parking brake ) I also have a knife scar on every finger of my right hand, and eleven scars total on my hands and wrist (that I know of). I've also broken the speed limit on my bicycle. Otherwise I've been pretty safe.

My European History teacher has a good quote on the wall that goes along the lines of "I don't want to be laid in my coffen unscathed and looking perfect. Rather, I wish to come sliding in at the last minute, thourghouly used up and fully expended." Pain and death are two separate things, and I treat them as such. Good fun is worth a little pain or a computer virus once in a blue moon. "Pain hurts, but only for a minute. Life is short so go on and live it," as the singer dude says.