Ubuntu in the University: dangerous installed applications?

[Johan Ramm-Ericson]

On Thu, October 26, 2006 Daniel Allen wrote:
> Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 01:00:53 -0400
> From: "Daniel Allen" <dada.da at gmail.com>
> Subject: Ubuntu in the University: dangerous installed applications?
> To: "Ubuntu Help and User Discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Message-ID:
> 	<aa2cdde20610252200y661bf5f5j7f5aed27e1e38c9a at mail.gmail.com>
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>
> Hi,
>
> We've deployed a set of Ubuntu servers to act as X11 servers in a
> university
> setting for Computer Science students.
>
> It's come up that... some of the packages that are installed by default
> probably shouldn't be, both by policy and to reduce undergrads'
> opportunities for mischief.  Right now we're looking at netcat and
> bittorrent.  Suggestions for other mischief tools? (Yes, I know this could
> be a loaded question based on definitions- we're not removing ssh or
> firefox, obviously. I'd prefer keeping this discussion to specific
> packages
> that are high or reasonably high risk for abuse by crafty students; from
> these, we can select the minimal number to remove to reduce the greatest
> amount of headache for us admins.  Thanks.)
>
> -Daniel

Yes, this is a loaded question and you'll probably get many answers with
very varied advice... :-)

A few which come to mind are: nmap, nmapfe, tcpdump, libpcap

Also, even if you do not have compilers installed by default, giving
students access to any disk area in which you can install anything is a
potential security hazard. But now we are starting to touch on areas where
it's a question of relative security vs. usability... and that's an
endless discussion.

Johan