[ISN] Security UPDATE -- In Focus: Yet Another Linux vs. Windows Report -- March 23, 2005

Thu Mar 24 04:43:18 EST 2005

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1. In Focus: Yet Another Linux vs. Windows Report

2. Security News and Features
   - Recent Security Vulnerabilities
   - Help Writing an Incident Response Plan
   - CyberGuard Acquires Zix Security Assets

3. Security Toolkit
   - Security Matters Blog
   - FAQ
   - Security Forum Featured Thread

4. New and Improved
   - Fine-Tuning Permissions

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==== 1. In Focus: Yet Another Linux vs. Windows Report ====
   by Mark Joseph Edwards, News Editor, mark at ntsecurity / net

How many reports and related news stories have you read that allege 
they will reveal that Linux is more secure than Windows or vice 
versa? Get set for yet another one. 

A recent news story, "Controversial Report Finds Windows More Secure 
than Linux," discusses a soon-to-be released report by a research 
professor at Florida Institute of Technology's College of Engineering 
and a director of research at a security technology provider. The 
report will compare Windows 2003 Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 
ES 3.0. As you might expect, the report is causing a stir of debate 
even before its release. 

There are problems with these kinds of comparison reports and their 
related news stories. One problem is that the media often generalize 
to the point that they propagate misinformation to the unknowing. For 
example, some people might not know that there are multiple versions 
of Linux, just as there are multiple versions of Windows. Dozens of 
entities produce their own unique brands of Linux, updating these 
brands with new versions over time. A statement such as "Windows is 
more secure than Linux" is broad to the point of being meaningless.

Another problem with the comparative reports is that they lack 
adequate context. The researchers often seem somewhat blind to other 
factors that play a key role in the risk in using any OS or 
application. 

According to the news story, the research report covers (among other 
information) statistics about the vulnerabilities that were found in 
each platform during 2004. Certainly that kind of information helps 
determine the overall security of an OS, but other data is necessary 
to put such reports in context. Among the data should be the answers 
to such questions as: How many security researchers were looking for 
security bugs and in what time frame? In which OS version were they 
looking? How much time did they spend on such efforts? What were 
their capabilities and what tools did they have at their disposal? 

Obviously, if less collective time is spent looking for security 
problems in a platform, then the probability is high that fewer 
problems will be found in that platform. Likewise, if more time is 
spent looking for problems in a platform, then the probability of 
discovering more problems in that platform increases. Applications 
also play a key role in the security of a platform. So data could be 
gathered about application vulnerabilities and how they've affected 
overall security. 

Equally as important, if not even more important, is the question of 
what motivates intruders and the makers of malware. How did these 
people spend their time? What OSs did they target most often and why?

Another set of interesting questions relate to how many of the cited 
vulnerabilities can be mitigated using configuration changes or 
defenses that are (or should) already be in place. For example, 
could a simple configuration change or a border or desktop firewall 
or Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) adequately defend against a 
particular vulnerability? 

None of this type of data is offered in any comparative reports that 
I know of. Yet all these questions should come into play when 
researching for security comparison purposes because this data would 
provide a much more complete picture of how much risk is involved in 
using a particular piece of software, whether it be an OS, a related 
service, or an application. Without this kind of data to offer a 
larger context, these comparative reports are far less useful than 
their production and associated media coverage imply. If you know of 
a report that includes this sort of context, please let me know about 
it. I'd surely like to read it.

====================

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==== 2. Security News and Features ====

Recent Security Vulnerabilities
   If you subscribe to this newsletter, you also receive Security 
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discoveries at
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Help Writing an Incident Response Plan
   Do you have a plan in place for responding to security incidents? 
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such a plan for your business. 
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CyberGuard Acquires Zix Security Assets
   CyberGuard announced that it has acquired Zix's antispam, 
antivirus, and URL filtering assets for approximately $4 million in 
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==== 3. Security Toolkit ==== 

Security Matters Blog 
   by Mark Joseph Edwards, http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=5BCC:4FB69

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FAQ
   by John Savill, http://list.windowsitpro.com/t?ctl=5BCA:4FB69 

Q: Under which user accounts do the various Group Policy scripts run?

Find the answer at
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Security Forum Featured Thread
   A forum participant is having trouble installing OpenSSH on Windows 
2003 Server. He's reasonably sure that he's set all NTFS permissions 
correctly (allowing read and write on working folders and read and 
execute on program folders). But he can't connect to an OpenSSH Secure 
FTP (SFTP) server using known SFTP clients (such as FileZilla or PuTTY 
SFTP--PSFTP). He can clearly see in the Application log that OpenSSH 
recognizes the user and authenticates the session by confirming that 
the right password has been used, but the logon attempt fails anyway. 
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==== 4. New and Improved ====
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