anti-virus, spyware, & bugs- Linux

[TwoBills]

OK, here's the thing. I've got my 1st build up and online with a Knoppix live cd as an operating system. I'm behind a firewall/router, but that's it for protection. I'm planning on building a Gentoo, universal, stage 3 operating system and using Knoppix to load it onto my hdd, but I've got a looong way to go.

In fact, the above paragraph is a summary of my entire knowledge base in the world of Linux. Heh, heh, might be needin' a little help here, you guys. I can only read so fast.

Anyway, what can I do, easily and quickly, to get some protection on this machine? Adaware, spybot, spyblaster, avg, etc. are a thing of the past, I think.

Or maybe I should just keep this thing off line until I learn enough about Linux to protect myself. I've always got the old ME machine.

Any feedback from the Linux community will be greatly appreciated. Going to the Gentoo and Linux forums and put my first posts on there, but I figure I'd pick Anandtech's brains first.I will greatly appreciate any and all your help and feedback.

Bill W.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Don't run any daemons that you don't need. Learn how to use the daemons you want to run. Don't give out accounts.

 

[TwoBills]

Daemons, hmm. I'm guessing these things are pretty basic in Linux. Good starting point: Figure out what they are and what they do. Right now I have to read everything 10 times just to start getting the drift. I figure I'll give myself a year to get the basic hang of things.

If Knoppix is any example of Linux, then I'm hooked. Machine is up and running without a hitch. Compared to getting my ME onto broadband, this was a dream. Still adding periphearls slowly just to savor the build. Made a network cable tonight, plugged it into the router, bam, online. Might end up dumping K on the hdd, but then I'd just get lazy. I think I need to do a relitively easy build, if for no other reason than learning what daemons are .

So, basically, if I'm careful about what I download and keep my accounts(?) close to the vest, I can loose my MS mentally when it comes to viruses, spyware, etc.?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Daemons are basically Services for *nix. Apache, OpenSSH, and sendmail are three examples of daemons. The Windows service that is the counterpart of the Apache daemon is IIS.

Basic security still applies. Don't run untrusted binaries, don't use the root account, use a strong password, keep up to date on software, and know what you are doing.

 

[TwoBills]

Whew, "know what I'm doing". That's going to take a while. When I say noob, well I'm the newest noob on the block. I guess my best plan of action is to plow thru this "Linux for dummies " book and be extra careful until I get a proper security plan in place.

I'm also trying to get into "C for Linux", but man, I started my education in a one room school house. That's some heavy reading. You think it's even possible to muck thru a Gentoo install without any background in this stuff?

 

[drag]

You learn as you go. The people who put together your OS work hard to make it secure for you to use.

I guess my gradeschool kicked your school's butt. Mine had 2 rooms. 2 teachers, and sometimes a apple computer that we would bet to play on maybe 2weeks out of the year on some loan from some city school. Loved it, got 3-4 recesses a day. Of course it got killed when the state changed it's school zoning stuff.

Linux you learn while you go. Basicly minimalism = security in unix land, but it equals more headaches. Use strong passwords (8 letters minimum mixed letters, numbers, and !@#!#@% type symbols) and keep it up to date and use that firewall and your already 10 steps ahead of what is normall possible in a Windows machine.

Just use google, search for "security basics linux" or "unix security" something like that. Also check out www.tldp.org, check out the guide section and look for the introduction to bash, and then the Linux administrator guide. If you can figure out that stuff, you'll be well on your way.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I'd write up a Linux security document, but due to the fact that every distro does things their own way it would be useless.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I'd write up a Linux security document, but due to the fact that every distro does things their own way it would be useless.

Then just pick a distro and go for it. After all you wouldn't write a "BSD" security document anymore would you? You'd go FreeBSD security, or NetBSD, or OpenBSD.

Or you can do just a general Unix type OS security document, and point out differences in different flavors and direct the reader to documents specific for their flavor of choice.

After all 90% of what you do can be modified and applied to Linux and *BSD and Solaris and even OS X without to much effort for the reader.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: drag

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I'd write up a Linux security document, but due to the fact that every distro does things their own way it would be useless.

Then just pick a distro and go for it. After all you wouldn't write a "BSD" security document anymore would you? You'd go FreeBSD security, or NetBSD, or OpenBSD.

Or you can do just a general Unix type OS security document, and point out differences in different flavors and direct the reader to documents specific for their flavor of choice.

After all 90% of what you do can be modified and applied to Linux and *BSD and Solaris and even OS X without to much effort for the reader.

Maybe, maybe not. FreeBSD and NetBSD use unstandard styles for init scripts. Linux and Solaris use SysV style, although Slackware has a bastardized BSD style. OpenBSD uses a traditional BSD style. OS X I haven't figured out (or forgot if I did :Q).

RedHat uses something called xinetd instead of the traditional inetd.

And I'm not sure what all starts up by default on the various systems. That'd be a lot of research right there.

 

[TwoBills]

Originally posted by: drag
You learn as you go. The people who put together your OS work hard to make it secure for you to use.

-----So, for the time being, while I'm learning, I should be pretty secure? I'm just using a Knoppix boot cd, until I can figure out the Gentoo disto, and I'm behind a firewall/router.


I guess my gradeschool kicked your school's butt. Mine had 2 rooms. 2 teachers, and sometimes a apple computer that we would bet to play on maybe 2weeks out of the year on some loan from some city school. Loved it, got 3-4 recesses a day. Of course it got killed when the state changed it's school zoning stuff.

-----Hah, the only apples we had were growing on a tree. It was against the rules to have a calculator in your possession. Slide rules only.

Linux you learn while you go. Basicly minimalism = security in unix land, but it equals more headaches. Use strong passwords (8 letters minimum mixed letters, numbers, and !@#!#@% type symbols) and keep it up to date and use that firewall and your already 10 steps ahead of what is normall possible in a Windows machine.

------Yeah, I was kinda' hopin' I could learn as I go. Minimalism is the basic mindset that attracted me to Linux. So maybe I've got a chance here.

Just use google, search for "security basics linux" or "unix security" something like that. Also check out www.tldp.org, check out the guide section and look for the introduction to bash, and then the Linux administrator guide. If you can figure out that stuff, you'll be well on your way.

-----Well, I figured out how to make my Gentoo handbook fit my screen, so I can actually read it (can't easily do it with IE6, gotta use Mozilla or Firefox - ctrl +/- is great). That paragraph above seems to hold the answers I need, along with the G handbook, so all that's left is to crack the code on this sucker.

Think a minimal, stage 1 Gentoo install is possible for this noob, or should I just stick w/universal, stage 3? Don't want to get entirely over my head.