Linux security

[Daniel Carrera]

Stephen R Laniel wrote:
>>I'm certainly a big fan of sudo. But what it does is protect the OS 
>>itself, the system files. I don't want to diminish sudo, but it doesn't 
>>protect your data files.
> 
> That's a rather narrow conception of the ways that people
> can access or destroy your data files.

It is? Since any program you run has read/write access to your data 
files anyways, sudo offers no protection that I can see.

> A great many security
> problems in Windows occur because a vulnerability allows
> arbitrary code to run with the privileges of the current
> user.

I'd be interested to hear an example. Honestly. This is useful 
information. How does Windows' weak separation of priviledge make it 
more vulnerable to viruses? I can guess that it should, but I can't 
actually suggest a typical use case where this Windows bug makes it 
easier to lose your data. As far as I can see all it does is create more 
hassle because you have to re-install Windows.

> Unless you're running bind or Apache under chroot,

Apache is a web server. This is very far from the use case I presented. 
I'm talking about viruses and malware for a desktop user. I know why 
Linux is more secure on a server, and on a multi-user environment. I'm 
asking about "regular users".

> 2) Ordinary users. These people probably don't care much
>    about security, or else they would have bailed on Windows
>    long ago.

How about ordinary users who do care about security and are wanting to 
know why it is that Linux is more secure than Windows? They'll probably 
say "I hear that Linux isn't any better, but it's just less targeted". 
I'd like to tell them that it actually is better independently of market 
size.

Tell me, do *you* think that Linux is less inherently less vulnerable to 
viruses than Windows? Why?

Best,
Daniel.
-- 
      /\/`) http://opendocumentfellowship.org
     /\/_/
    /\/_/   ...and starting today, all passwords must contain
    \/_/    letters, numbers, doodles, sign language and
    /       squirrel noises.