Re: Found, a new rootkit

Mike McCarty wrote:
Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:

Mike McCarty wrote:

Tim wrote:

I don't have a single Linux box here that listens to the modem. I'd
have to install a service to do so. Your MS-DOS box is no more secure
than any of them, for that point of attack.


I respectfully disagree with you on this point. Your Linux
machine has a device driver for that device, while my MSDOS
machine does not. So you *do* have software listening to
that device, which software potentially has security compromising
defects. I have no software on my MSDOS machine which listens
to the serial port. So if I install a modem on it, it remains
relatively secure.


I fail the see the difference between the Linux driver for a serial
port, and the DOS driver for COM ports, at least as far as security
goes. Nether driver does anything unless there is a program


You are right, in regards to the software itself. The difference
is that MSDOS does not automatically install device drivers
for COM ports, whereas Linux does.


Linux is about having the freedom to configure your system the way you want it.

I always rebuild my kernel without any serial port drivers. I don't build any modules for devices that I don't use. You can't trigger a bug in code that doesn't exist!

As a positive side effect, my kernel is about 1/2 the size of a standard Fedora kernel and lib/modules is 10 times smaller.

Regards,

John

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