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A Secure OS For the Dalai Lama?
Jamyang (Greg Walton) writes "I am editor of the Infowar Monitor and co-author of the recent report, Tracking Ghostnet. I have been asked by the Office of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama (OHHDL) and the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGIE) to offer some policy recommendations in light of the ongoing targeted malware attacks directed at the Tibetan community worldwide. Some of the recommendations are relatively straightforward. For example, I will suggest that OHHDL convene an international Board of Advisers, bringing together some of the brightest minds in computer and international security to advise the Tibetans, and that the new Tibetan university stands up a Certified Ethical Hacking course. However, one of the more controversial moves being actively debated by Tibetans on the Dharamsala IT Group [DITG] list, is a mass migration of the exile community (including the government) to Linux, particularly since all of the samples of targeted malware collected exploit vulnerabilities in Windows. I would be very interested to hear Slashdot readers opinions on this debate here." (More below.)
Jamyang continues: "Allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment here: in the short term, moving to a platform that is perhaps less familiar to the attacker provides considerable relief, but it is essentially less difficult to write exploits for Mac OS/Linux than it is for Windows, given the many anti-exploitation mechanisms Microsoft has embedded in the last years, so in the long run, if the attackers want your data, the entire move is moot. People should choose a platform based on their productivity requirements instead of purely security. Furthermore, most of the web servers broken into during these attacks (to be used as command and control servers) were not Windows, but Linux. What do you think?
(While I have the floor I'd also like to take this opportunity to plug two initiatives where Slashdot readers can directly help the Tibetan tech community, either through sharing your expertise or your cash! Firstly, one of the obstacles to migrating to Linux for a Tibetan speaker is the lack of decent Tibetan font — can you help? Secondly, Avaaz is raising funds for projects that will help End The Blackout in Tibet, including a proposal to support the deployment of Psiphon's circumvention network. Thanks, or in Tibetan, thuk.je.che!"
(While I have the floor I'd also like to take this opportunity to plug two initiatives where Slashdot readers can directly help the Tibetan tech community, either through sharing your expertise or your cash! Firstly, one of the obstacles to migrating to Linux for a Tibetan speaker is the lack of decent Tibetan font — can you help? Secondly, Avaaz is raising funds for projects that will help End The Blackout in Tibet, including a proposal to support the deployment of Psiphon's circumvention network. Thanks, or in Tibetan, thuk.je.che!"
It is clear that if an entire community has a requirement for a certain font designing a new one is the most easy thing to do. Release it as free and you have a problem solved. Don't any Tibetan Typographers exist? So with a bit of Googling they do exist and can be found here: http://www.thdl.org/
Support Eachother, Copy Dutch Property!
First off, yes, that is a single sentence.
Secondly, exactly who is it who says (or can demonstrate) that cracking a Mac or Linux box is easier than a Windows box? My experience is exactly the opposite.
With purchase of Tibet of equal or lesser value.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
As opposed to the anti-exploitation frameworks which were present in UNIX systems from the moment they were conceived? and continually updated since? You've been listening to too much Microsoft advertising if you think they're Superior. (Competitive? Maybe. Superior? Not a chance).
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Talk to the Bhutanese Govt. They're now using a Debian variant with localised scripts for Dzongha. Debian includes some Tibetan fonts.
That should give you 20,000 apps to leverage :) Christian Perrier who co-ordinates some of the Debian translation work may know more.
The only exploits they're going to discover are windows exploits. I hope you've made them well aware exploits exist for every platform, and if someone is directly targeting them rather than just being hit by run-of-the-mill worms, they're going to get in. You should focus your efforts on limiting the amount of damage someone can do once they do get in.
If *I* was in charge of the DL's computer, I wouldn't put on *only* Linux or *only* Windows or what have you. I think the DL needs a multiboot machine, and would really appreciate it if you tried to make him one with everything.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
http://paranoidlinux.org/ is a project to create a distribution which assumes the user is under assault from the government. Right now, it's a vaguely locked down version of Ubuntu, but someday this might be pretty cool.
In the meantime, just run NetBSD and full-disk encryption.
From wikipedia:
NetBSD provides various features in the security area. The Kernel Authorization framework (or Kauth) is a subsystem managing all authorization requests inside the kernel, and used as system-wide security policy. It allows external modules to plug-in the authorization process. NetBSD also incorporates exploit mitigation features, ASLR, MPROTECT and Segvguard from PaX project, and GCC Stack Smashing Protection (SSP, or also known as ProPolice) compiler extensions. The Verified Executables (or Veriexec) is an in-kernel file integrity subsystem in NetBSD. It allows the user to set the digital fingerprints (hashes) of files in the system to monitor by the Veriexec, and prevent the execution of them. For example, one can allow Perl to run only scripts that match the fingerprints. The cryptographic device driver (CGD) provides functionality which allows using the disks or partitions (including CDs and DVDs) for encrypted storage in NetBSD.
First of all, converting the Dalai Lama to Linux is about the coolest IT project I've ever heard of, so congratulations
That aside, there are practical considerations and there are philosophical ones you'll want to consider. Practically speaking, no platform is 100% secure. Linux has historically been more secure than Windows. MS has made a lot of progress in the last decade or so.
The question is, do you prefer the closed-source approach or the open-source one? Would you rather the problems be hidden away, or laid out for all to find? In the closed-source scenario, knowledge of exploits may be less common, but that cuts two ways. Less attackers will be aware of an exploit, but less defenders will be aware of it as well. That may well result in the exploits that do occur being much more severe.
Beyond those practical considerations, which approach fits better with the values of the Tibetan community and the Dalai Lama in particular? In my mind, open source is the embodiment of non-attachment.
Monkeytreats
A Secure OS For the Dalai Lama?
I have absolutely no idea what Slashdot will say to a question like that.
Obviously fake. A real Nigerian scam would have more capital letters and misspelled words.
Apparently this Vista thing is the most secure os on the planet.
Boot always from an trusted, read only media, like CD/DVD or locked USB thumb drive.
Media should contain not only OS but applications in trusted configuration. No updates allowed from outside trusted entities
Use only boot media provided from trusted entity
Maybe use also something like tripwire to detect change in the OS/applications files checking changes by comparing sensitive file
Full encryption on sensitive data/drives
Why would it be more difficult to "write" (aka implement) exploits for one operating system than another? You should be worried about how hard it is to find exploits and how quickly they're fixed.
Assuming for the moment all you care about is the actual security of your software (excluding implementation details, mis-configurations, etc), the real metric you want to be looking at is the frequency of discovery of serious vulnerabilities and the span of time from first (non-public) discovery (which may not be knowable) and the appearance of a patch you could use. Looking merely at "remote root exploits / year" and "mean time to patch remote root exploit" might not be a bad place to start.
Also, you need to think about the actual design of the operating systems in question. Without tipping my hand too much, some might say that the Unix user/superuser distinction is something Microsoft could learn from.
That being said, though, I'll tell you my opinions.
Netbsd has one of the best track records in the industry with regards to server security. The security of *nix, in general, scales directly with the intelligence of the people managing it. You can get decently far with Windows and just doing things 'by the book,' but it's got all the typical problems of monoculture and a well-deserved poor reputation.
A group of very intelligent, very technical network admins are nearly unstoppable given linux and sufficient control. A group of very intelligent people can probably make do with Windows too. Windows configured by average people may in some cases be better than Linux configured by average people.
In any event, just from reading your question, I doubt you are technical enough to undertake this at a nuts-and-bolts level. You kind of came here asking "Is Linux or Windows more secure?" You bet your ass I have an opinion on the matter, but the problem is, so does everyone else. You need to find highly intelligent people, and then use your common sense and analytical thinking to weigh their arguments. In short, stop thinking as if the answer to your question would provide security; find smart people experienced in securing things and then evaluate the tools (operating systems) as they relate to your immediate ends.
After all, this is the worst possible article in which to lose karma.
Red Flag Linux ? ;)
To bad MS has figured out how to implement it consistently. ASLR in Linux is a novelty and usually not the default. Just like selinux is a joke. It's high maintenance and just having it installed doesn't protect anything unless you carefully and manually tweak it. Ever look and see what it actually protects when you enable it on RHEL? Damn near nothing. A carefully setup system with a proper selinux config might be good for a secure, single purpose internet facing server but it usually ends up getting disabled on a desktop computer.
it's like the soul of Debian, but reincarnated in a new body.
Not the entire US Govt - just the state department. It was a political pissing contest over which contract was used and that Congressman Wolf didn't get a kickback if the contract went through Lenovo who was doing business out of New York. If Chinese made computers or Chinese controlled companies were the issue, they wouldn't have bought any computers. There are no computers made solely with US parts on US soil.
Computers aren't that big of a deal. You inspect for physical anomalies, wipe the HD and install the OS. You never use the default factory install as its untrustworthy. Same reason you wipe thumb drives on a standalone computer before issuing to your users.
Now if you want to talk about untrustworthy sources - there are legitimate reasons for the US govt to avoid Kasperasky A/V as the company is owned by an ex-KGB type and has connections to russian hackers.
Remind me again please which OS the botnet runs on? Thank you.
MS embeds all kinds of code from third parties. Drivers, libraries etc etc. It has been shown time and time again that there are huge security holes in MS code, holes that are actively exploited. It ain't for nothing that when the NSA wanted to make a proof of concept secure OS they choose linux.
You got a point, how can you trust any OS if you have not checked the code. Where you take a dive of the deep end is that you then suggest that MS can be trusted to check the code for you. Not trusting say Red Hat blindly that they checked all the code is sensible, trusting Microsoft that they checked all theirs is just plain silly. If they had, they wouldn't have so many bugs. And your fate in your goverment is bordering on the insane.
Anyway, that same goverment checks linux code. So either both are to be trusted or neither is.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Graphite is an open-source technology, designed for the specific purpose of non-Roman fonts with complex behaviors like contextual shaping, etc.
Unfortunately, the default font rendering toolkit in Linux, Pango is not a smart-font technology.
However, the pango-graphite library supports the smartfont technology if fonts are authored with the appropriate tables.
I think that people need to share their experiences with designing smart fonts. This way, more projects know what are their options.
Does it include Enlightenment?
... you need to choose a competent admin. Remember, security is a process, not a product ...
gd
It's not about the OS. I've had Windows servers remain safe for years, and Linux servers be subverted in days.
Security is an eco-system, not an OS, for example:
- granting and removing access rights, in a very conservative and up-to-date manner
- keeping an audit trail of every access
- locking confidential info so it never gets onto a laptop's HD
- having backups
- securing every cog and wheel of the system: client PCs, routers, servers, backups, admin stations...
- locking down the weakest point: users (weak passwords, copied files, printouts, espionage...)
- and many more issues.
In the big picture, the OS is fairly irrelevant. It's only a very small part of the whole system. The whole "we need to be safe - let's switch to Linux" is wrong and shows a tremendous lack of understanding of the issues.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.