CentOS - Feb 2015 - Another Fedora decision

On Thu, 2015-02-05 at 09:27 -0600, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
> .......... I feel like
> there is brave new world of admins who feel it right to have
>  "iPad-like" everything, i.e. boxes cooked up and sealed by
vendor, and
>  you have no way even to look inside, not to say re-shape interior to
>  your understanding [of security or anything else]. Am I the only one?
Foolish and stupid implicit trust in a third party. Just look at the
Windoze world ever since Win95 (first edition of many) materialised.
Trust M$ and get a free virus every time !

I don't use my Android tablet after I discovered a default setting
(semi-hidden away) was "Trust Google by automatically sharing all
passwords with Google".  I would like to use the tablet but only when
there is a major free and entirely open source version of Linux
available for it.

Then there is the BIOS (or similar) with a functioning TCP/IP stack, so
I am told. How good is security when a low level backdoor exists ?
Keeping Uncle Sam and his associates out does not make everyone a
dangerous threat to public safety and to national security. Don't
forget about the Chinese switching equipment which some believe could
be controlled remotely by the Chinese.

Paper and pen (or Biro/ball-point) was massively more secure. Are we
stupid because we place so much inherent trust in the honesty and
integrity of others whilst never having an opportunity to verify their
offerings ?  Open Source, all the way down to the motherboard, is
increasingly important for the efficient and safe functioning of our global
society, from traffic lights to hospital live-saving machinery.

When will Centos (RH) be able to replace Google on Android tablets ?
> Good luck, everyone. Stay safe and keep your boxes secure!
It is not only the "boxes" which must be kept secure. Increasing
amounts
of data mean security must be increased too and become a normal 'way of
life'.

In addition to my Centos Leaning mailing list suggestion, I would like
to see a free web based Centos security questionnaire to ask users
security related questions and then present a rating based upon their
correct answers. Red Hat people and Fedora people too lurk on here, yet
there is a reluctance (probably commercially inspired) not to fully
respond to the challenges threatening all of us 'today'.


-- 
Regards,

Paul.
England, EU.      Je suis Charlie.

On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 9:59 AM, Always Learning <centos at u64.u22.net>
wrote:
>
> Foolish and stupid implicit trust in a third party. Just look at the
> Windoze world ever since Win95 (first edition of many) materialised.
> Trust M$ and get a free virus every time !
I wouldn't go there unless you want to compare against, say Red Hat 4
(original, not RHEL) of the same era where virtually every service had
remote exploits - and we are still finding them.  Or unless you have
some sort of proof that a current Windows 2012 server is less secure
or stable than a Linux distro.
> In addition to my Centos Leaning mailing list suggestion, I would like
> to see a free web based Centos security questionnaire to ask users
> security related questions and then present a rating based upon their
> correct answers. Red Hat people and Fedora people too lurk on here, yet
> there is a reluctance (probably commercially inspired) not to fully
> respond to the challenges threatening all of us 'today'.
Let's start with why your /etc/shadow has read access.  That's one of
the things that was right out of the box.  What changed it and why?

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com

On Thu, 2015-02-05 at 10:10 -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 9:59 AM, Always Learning <centos at
u64.u22.net> wrote:
> Or unless you have some sort of proof that a current Windows 2012
>  server is less secure or stable than a Linux distro.
Not every 'home' or business user uses, or can afford to purchase,
Windoze 2012 Server. Besides that is far too large for end-users.
Conversely everyone can use and afford (because it is free) to install
Linux as a server, as a end-user (non-server) or as a mixture of the
two. The Linux flexibility is one of its many strong points.
> Let's start with why your /etc/shadow has read access.  That's one
of
> the things that was right out of the box.  What changed it and why?
Yes that is what I would like to know. Can't tell. That disk was wiped,
partitioned differently and reformatted. But it remains a puzzle I am
unlikely to forget for a long time. I carried-out a check on every
machine and was happy to see ---------- .


-- 
Regards,

Paul.
England, EU.      Je suis Charlie.