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Trustworthy Computing
Anonymous Coward writes "This is a first: the Internet Storm Center is recommending trustworthy computing. They want you to trust that the unofficial patch for the Windows Metafile Volunerability that is currently being exploited by an IM worm. No patch from Microsoft at this time, and the exploit is arranged in such a manner that it cannot be detected by most intrusion detection systems (the snort rule will peg the CPU on your router) nor filtered by packet-inspecting firewalls (it spans two or more ethernet frames). Not really a whole lot of choice about this one."
I just wanted to point out that I hate Slashdot.
:P
Why?
Because we have our first real new oxymoron of this century, and I can't help but laugh every time I see it. In fact I nearly snorted milk through my nose this morning.
Trustworthy Computing. Pfft.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Are you really _that_ stupid?
Seriously, try to educate yourself about topics before you vomit bullshit into slashdot.
Google a bit for "buffer overflow" or "stack busting" and come back later...
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Ok, thanks for playing.
You don't have a fucking clue what you're talking about.
A computer *WILL NOT* jump to an arbitrary memory address if the architecture prevents this - clearly you HAVE NO EXPERIENCE OF any computer architectures other than over-inflated microprocessors/microcontrollers like the ix86.
Your whole rant is a pile of shit and you don't understand how compuers work.
Sorry pal!
Listen up "ciroKnight" you hopeless, mother-fucking retard.
You clearly know N O T H I N G about large-scale, enterprise computing, so please fuck off and die (painfully, slowly and quietly, if possible) please.
Get ye gone!
I usually stay out of the Windows/Linux/Mac arguments, but I'm afraid you just don't understand my world.
I've been there, done that and got holes in that T-shirt. And I call bullshit.
I work for a very small company, probably typical of thousands of other very small companies.
I've worked in IT situations with multiple labs of 30 computers. I've worked in companies with 5 computers. Both, however, had the management brains to hire at least a part-time student IT worker or (in my case) a full-time sysadmin. Before these fancy computer systems a small business involved dozens of people just typing and tabulating stuff. Office automation is not a free ride. If the boss gets a personal secretary all to himself yet your bread-in-butter computer systems have a good coating of dust, someone isn't minding the store.
We have one Unix machine, which I despise, because its desktop GUI is primitive and its command interface makes MS-DOS look well-designed and intuitive.
Unless you're willing to provide everyone with echo $SHELL and $SHELL --version get off UNIX's nuts about command interfaces. Unlike Windows you have a choice of both GUI and command line environments in UNIX. Being a Windows Guy(tm) means you probably didn't think of that, but this is expected.
I rarely get to spend more than two or three hours a week on network maintenance, security monitoring, and research combined.
Stop reading newsgroups. Block slashdot.org while at work. Spend one of those hours learning about filtering out stupid work emails. Lack of willingness to spare time does not mean that time doesn't exist.You mentioned all your training is from work done "in my spare time" so I can assume that you're willing to sacrifice personal time to work.
How many inches of your resume are taken up with MS technologies you learned in your free spare time? Your work situation has little to do with the OS Marketplace and everything to do with the resume marketplace. Those of us working with UNIX and Linux desktops typically have to learn MS products in addition to whatever prefered platform we have. It's called interoperability. (FYI, once you learn a UNIX, you will find that
it works similarly everywhere, unlike Microsoft's OSes)
I didn't choose Windows; I inherited it and have no resources to replace it. My company didn't really choose Windows; it was forced on us by the marketplace.
Why did your company chose Windows? Because it looked good on your developer's resumes. Why do folks still use Windows? Because it looks good on a resume. Why did you chose to learn Windows in your spare time? Because it looked good on your resume. The WMF vulnerability will not change this. Knowing what ISC or what a patch is will not change this. As long as nobody got fired for buy Microsoft, security issues caused by Microsoft assuming single-user non-networked use will continue to plauge IT.
We have about $60,000 invested in software (other than OS's) that will only run under Windows. We have no hardware to set up a test server, no money (or time) to spend on unsuccessful experiments.
What do you do with older PCs once you reach the next turn of the upgrade treadmill from Microsoft (and it's attendent super-sized performance requirements)? Linux runs great on old, depricated hardware you have sitting in a closet. I know I've bought many an ex-windows PC from resellers of medium to large businesses for under the cost of an expensive business lunch. Heck, I'd put Linux on the old and new machines and run Windows in a locked-down vmware session. I seriously doubt your old COM+ business software requires the latest SLI video card or Dolby 5.1 soundcard. The generic emulated ones would suffice and restarting a hacked vitural image is a cakewalk compared with having a compromised workstation or server that must be physcially removed.
B
"You cannot have a General Will unless you have shared experiences. You cannot be fair to people you don't know."