On Thu, 15 May 2003, Eric Estabrooks wrote:

>
> > Not having a compiler/interpreter on the system means they _have_ to
> > have pre-compiled static/compatible binaries for the system.
> >
> > This pretty much eliminates cross platform automated attacks, and
> > ensures that _your_ attacker will have to approach your system with
> > the personal attention and TLC that it deserves ;)
> >
>
> Unless you've gotten rid of all shells on the box (bash, ash, tcsh, ...)
> you haven't elimitated cross platform automated attacks at all.  The
> fact is if there is any interpreter on the box an automated bootstrap
> can happen.
>
> I agree that not having the compilers on there will slow them down but
> not by much.
>
> Even better is to use any of the kernel security patches that prevent
> executable stacks and watch for buffer overflows, they slow things down
> a little but worth the security if its a mission critical box.
>
True. For a hard-core firewall box you want to eliminate all GP
scriptable programs from the system. I do believe that shells
qualify as interpreters however (even though it is easy to forget
that they are).

-- 
Daniel Taylor
dante at argle.org
Forget diamonds, Copyright is forever.


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