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Gotta Read This..........


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Well, it would be pointless to argue the point with those people, because they are obviously clueless:

 

"...XP is extremely secure if you set it up correctly..."

"...XP is tough as nails..."

"...XP is rather secure. Like someone else said, Linux releases a new kernel update sometimes 5 times a week, but usually at least once per week fixing security holes..."

 

These are not kernel updates, but patches to whatever binaries. Most vulnerabilities are to attacks by local users with passwords.

 

"...BTW, XP is much more secure than linux if installed by the same person...because linux is defaulted to having a ton of extra stuff running that keep ports open..."

 

At install, Mandrake, at least warns you of servers you have installed that are started by default and asks you if you are sure you want to turn them on. Does XP do this?

 

"...Likewise if you look on Zone-H.Org, an independent security site, ya know what is the most hacked OS? Linux, by more than 3x a Windows Variant..."

 

From Zone-H (note that it doesn't say whether or not the attacks were successful):

ZONE-H TODAYS VERIFIED ATTACKS

14 single IP

17 mass defacements



Win 2000 (67.7)



Linux (29.0)



Win 2003 (3.2)

 

BAH

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They forgot to mention that to run longhorn, they need to buy a new pc.. specced by Microsoft itself.

So longhorn is basically an OS for glorified X-boxes.. not a general purpose OS.

 

Oh.. and if someone say that XP is more secure than Linux.. they haven't been own3d yet. And this is a quote from Woody's Email Watch.

A Patch Standoff  

I wonder what's going to happen.  

 

Last week, I reported that Microsoft is going to hold off and release security patches once a month (unless there's a big, pressing problem). This week, there's a big, pressing problem. Many of them, in fact. Between a whole class of new "shatter attack" vulnerabilities, with nearly every Windows XP app exposed, and an unexpected security hole in Macromedia's Flash, and working examples of cracking programs for all of those widely available on the Web, it's only a matter of time before some persistent cretin creates a new fast-spreading worm.  

 

Will Microsoft (and, presumably, Macromedia) develop a patch (er, patches) in time? And will they be released immediately, or will they be delayed for the monthly fix?  

 

The clock is ticking. Stay tuned.

So it's not the number of fixes that are shown.. it's how good those fixes are and how soon microsoft make the patch available to fix those bugs.. I mean.. there are lately MS have to patch for bugs that are over 4 years old. That's microsoft security initiative for you. Now governments and government institutions are flocking to linux in a big way, including the US Army. If that is not a proof of the world getting disillusioned with microsoft's security initiatives, I don't know what is.

 

Another thing that they forgot to include in they only see the patches for XP (as in the OS). They haven't seen the patches for MS server applications such as IIS, SQL Server, Exchange server and even something like Office. Now, Linux on the other hand, gives out security warning of EVERY open-sourced products that runs on linux, whose number can dwarf MS applications by about 4 to 1 at least. So, if you don't use Apache, sendmail, bind, or wuftp.. you can ignore those warnings. Then the number of security patches for linux drops out significantly.. Besides.. what do you think a Service Pack or a rollout patch is, if not for a huge number of fixes put into one exe file.

 

Thus end my rant for today. It really galls me to see people saying things about Microsoft is more secure without noticing the effort it takes to make Microsoft more secure in the first place. Linux, on the other hand is cake to make secure, especially with modern distro with good update features such as debian apt-get, mandrake urpmi, and redhat up2date.

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a file system alone doesnt make things more secure. security is a process. does longhorn still use activeX? does longhorn still use visual basic and visual basic scripting? does longhorn set up users with admin priveledges? the answer for NT to XP is yes. i canabolised my XP. i removed activeX, VBSscript, IE, windows media player, outlook express, M$ office, MSN Explorer, windows messenger, MSN messenger, IIS, and a few other things. installed on NTFS, using a firewall blocking most ports. can XP be made secure? sure, i did :wink: would others wanna do what i did? not likely.

 

linux security: multiple partitions, each a different file system. encryption. admin account set up by default, and user account and permissions also set up by default. services can be turned off easily. securetty can be commented out. iptables can be configured with front end clients or with scripts.

 

M$ is always taunting their latest OS is the "most secure, most stable ever" and always falling dismally short.

 

at my work they run NT 4.0 with sp 6. i have been able to easily hack the system and get to the registry editor (not that i did anything). it was through using an every day tool, IE. i clicked on the favorites folder, which opened up the side panel. in the side panel it had folders containing links. i right clicked that and chose "explore". from there i was on my way to the registry editor. in linux this never would have happened. i might have been able to view the registry editor in linux, but not make changes to it, due to permissions.

 

do you think M$ has fixed these kind of fundamental security issues? not likely! it would take a fundamental reworking of the windows OS.

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Xp is secure? They do not know what they are talking about. If I include the attacks of ms software communicating back to Redmond without asking me, my network is attacked everytime an xp box is fired up. If you do not install a personal firewall to block outgoing data, you're wide open. And I'm not just talking about xp checking for updates. Trusting my pc to ms is like entrusting my daughter to a whorehouse. Neither will come back unscathed!

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Maybe MS is working from a different perspective?

 

was 98 more secure than 95?

most likely,

 

was win2000 more secure than nt4?

definatly,

 

is xp more secure than win2000?

without a doubt,

 

will longhorn be more secure than xp?

Absolutely!

 

What the general public is missing is the real perspective,

MS was never secure in the first place and doing anything to

up it's level of security is an improvement.

They have managed to reduce the number of holes from millions to hundreds of thousands!!!

See, an improvement!!!

:lol:

 

Capn

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talking about which version of an OS is more secure is obscure at best. NT 4.0 can be said to be more secure than 2000 or XP because its had more time to have the holes plugged. in retrospect 2000 has over 60,000 known known vulnerabilities. XP has had a couple of FBI warnings about it. does that mean XP is more secure than 2000 and 2000 is more secure than NT? no. it seems everytime M$ tries to patch something, they need a patch for the patch. alot of the windows exploits are exploited again and again, even after applying said patch.

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Windows secure, absolutely, that's why corporate firewalls and routers run *nix. Because windows is secure. And even a lot of those silly little router/firewalls that you can by from DLink or Linksys run some form of embedded linux - yep, windows is secure, no doubt about it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Right before I picked up my first copy of Linux I had asked my Systems Analyst buddy if there was a way to make wiindows more stable and secure.

As far as he knows, the best and quickest way is to park a 1950 Packard on top of it. That is, of course, barring the availability of fresh concrete.

Just a professional opinion I wanted to pass along.

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