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A Taste Of Computer Security

Posted by michael on from the where-there's-a-whip-there's-a-way dept.

andrew_ps writes "Amit Singh has published on his KernelThread.com a paper (mini book really) on computer security. A Taste of Computer Security is a VERY comprehensive paper in what it covers, but is remarkably easy to read. This is not some list of "sploits" though! Topics covered include popular notions about security, types of mal-ware, viruses & worms, memory attacks/defences, intrusion, sandboxing, review of Solaris 10 security and plenty of others. Most notably it includes probably one of the most fair and intelligent analysis of the Unix-Vs-Windows security issue that I have ever seen."

1 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The UNIX vs MS Windows discussion is lacking by Minna+Kirai · · Score: 4, Informative
    Why should administrator authority be needed to play a game?

    So the game can have "root"-level control over your machine, to ensure that you're not cheating with 3rd-party apps running on the same machine. It must be able to inspect all applications and drivers in memory, comparing them against a list of "cheat signatures" rather like a virus-scanner does.

    Seriously. This is exactly what's happening. Evenbalance.com licenses cheat-prevention software modules to several major game publishers, and they've started disallowing players on XP machines unless they're running under the "administrator" account.

    Just read the FAQ here:
    1. Why does PunkBuster now require players to run the game as an administrator under WinXP/2K?

      Because some cheats/hacks cannot be detected otherwise

    The reason you give is obselete- mistrust of the end user is the new, upcoming explanation.