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Local Area Security Linux LiveCD

Posted by michael on from the sysadmin-warchest dept.

An anonymous reader writes "LocalAreaSecurity.com has released a new version of their live-CD Linux distribution for information security professionals. It contains over 200 security tools including all the usual suspects (Nmap, Nessus, etc.) as well as many other great tools less well known. The ISO images are meant to be burned on 185MB and 210MB miniCDs which they update around twice a month. L.A.S. also publishes many papers on how to use the tools as well as research docs on *nix security. Their latest papers include: Securing Mambo Open Source CMS, Doing More With Less: Nessus, and L.A.S. Security Tool Review and Howto: kismet."

9 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Obviously... by SphericalCrusher · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is for the security of your network, not just that computer. WITH those tools, COMES the security -- even Windows has its share of security tools.

    I wonder how this will fare against Knoppix STD? Knoppix, as the world knows, is an awesome LiveCD distro of Linux that comes with an assortment of tools. This... just seems to come with a lot more. I guess it just matters about that user-friendliest though, as an Elite Linux user could boot up with Slackware CD 2, the LiveCD and do just as much or more. But yet, Slackware is as user friendly as a rabid wolf.

    --
    "Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
  2. Re:Nmap by qualico · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But Nmap is a MUST have tool you can not do without.

    Would you throw away your hammer because it can be used to illegally break into places?

  3. "security" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, security all right. I'm sure 99% of the 14 year old skript kiddiez making and downloading these things are "security" minded.

    1. Re:"security" by Punk+Walrus · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Yeah, security all right. I'm sure 99% of the 14 year old skript kiddiez making and downloading these things are "security" minded.

      And thus, I want a copy. As others have joked, by the very definition of a "skript kiddie" (unskilled cracker dependent on the tools of others), something like this is way out of their league. But I assume you might have meant, "People who do illegal things to computers who could use such a convenient CD where all the free tools online are in one place."

      Well, they are going to do use it, whether it's wrong or not, and if LAS doesn't do it, someone else will (and has). And I want the same tools to test my firewalls and stuff to make SURE that it's hard to break into my network. Nothing will ever be hack-proof, but if you can make it hard for illegal entry, the crook will look elsewhere for something easier. And tools like these give me the same tools the crooks have, and the advantage I have is that I don't need time to "sniff" for anything to deduce which items to crack, since I already know what machines are senistive. I can just use an Ethereal capture pointed at an IP or MAC and see what it's sending out. Try and hack my own wireless connection with Kismet. And so on.

      It's all in intent, and how you use it. I use tools like thse to trace stray DHCP servers, look for illegal Kazaa use, or find out who's trying to hack my firewall.

      A prybar is not illegal. Forcing open a loose door on property you don't own or beating someone to death with it is illegal. But you don't see people banning prybars at Home Depot.

  4. But I just read.. by noselasd · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hmm.. pondering about how this releates to this

  5. The law and desireability by 0x0d0a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hope everybody knows that the creator of nmap is a criminal, and used his port scanner tool for illegal purposes.

    Uh, huh.

    When Phil Zimmerman released PGP, he underwent a three-year investigation by the FBI.

    I not care in the least what either Phil or Fyodor did (especially when Fyodor was tracking down a harasser). They produce excellent software, which is their only interaction with me.

    There is a lot of content on Slashdot that could be considered libel. If every person guilty of libel on Slashdot was ignored, we'd have an awfully quiet forum.

    --
    May we never see th
  6. Re:Mirrors for Download by deinol · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You'd think that someone clever enough to create a live linux CD would have heard of BitTorrent by now.

    Wake up people, releasing ISO's should be done through BitTorrent. Then, instead of /. making it impossible to download, it harnesses the power of /. to make it faster to download.

    --
    Got Apathy?
  7. Minidisk by finkployd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Great, this fits on a minidisk and is updated twice a month. What a PERFECT use for CDRW minidisks. Except I cannot find them anywhere. Does anyone make such a beast? Is there some technical reason why all the minidisks I can find are all CDR?

    Finkployd

  8. Noteable Omissions by HenryKoren · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are some programs I expected to be on this distro that aren't.

    Tethereal The X version "ethereal" is there, but I've always prefered the text based ethereal
    Etherape A cool visual traffic monitor.

    Other than that, LAS Linux is pretty cool!

    --
    To blog is sublime