mobility and firewall

[Ivan Krstic]

Rui Tiago Cação Matos wrote:
> As far as I'm aware there are no harmful spy/mal-ware or virus/trojan self
> replicating things that affect GNU/Linux systems. If you know of any I'd be
> glad to know about them too.

Linux.Adore.Worm
Linux.Cheese.Worm
Linux.Hijacker.Worm
Linux.Lion.Worm	
Linux.Millen.Worm
Linux.Ramen.Worm
Linux.Slapper.D	
Linux.Slapper.Worm

Slapper, for instance, propagated to at least 7 thousand machines.
Anyway - we're looping in circles here. There are plenty of people
shouting "give us a firewall", yet no one has made a coherent, succinct,
and *specific* argument as to what such a firewall would do.

I originally posted about firewalls here in November 2004, and Scott
Remnant made a perfectly valid point in response:
 http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2004-November/001434.html
(among the last few paragraphs, start with "All the hype").

I would kindly ask that further cries for a firewall be accompanied by a
*specific* ruleset (pseudocode is fine) and a specific explanation of
how such a ruleset will defend a user. Bonus points for a complete
threat model (I might write one up later tonight).

-IK