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REMnux, the Malware Analysis Linux OS
Trailrunner7 writes "A security expert has released a stripped-down Ubuntu distribution designed specifically for reverse-engineering malware. The OS, called REMnux, includes a slew of popular malware-analysis, network monitoring and memory forensics tools that comprise a very powerful environment for taking apart malicious code. REMnux is the creation of Lenny Zeltser, an expert on malware reverse engineering who teaches a popular course on the topic at SANS conferences. He put the operating system together after years of having students ask him which tools to use and what works best. He originally used Red Hat Linux, but recently decided that Ubuntu was a better fit. REMnux has three separate tools for analyzing Flash-specific malware, including SWFtools, Flasm and Flare, as well as several applications for analyzing malicious PDFs, including Didier Stevens' analysis tools. REMnux also has a number of tools for de-obfuscating JavaScript, including Rhino debugger, a version of Firefox with NoScript, JavaScript Deobfuscator and Firebug installed, and Windows Script Decoder."
I thought Debian was left handed, not gay. Am I wrong?
Stop. Making. New. Linux. Distributions.
It's a time-wasting hassle for the user, the administrator and the developer.
It's a turn-off to anyone who might otherwise consider supporting a Linux-based platform.
Look, if you want to build a distribution to do something in particular, you're doing it wrong. Stop ironing the "I made my own Linux distribution" in 32 pt Comic Sans on your ego-boost t-shirt and start asking yourself why the kernel and userspace isn't just one huge binary blob. That's right: because not everyone wants to do the same thing, and modularity encourages reuse.
tl;dr .deb meta-packages with a line of Depends longer than a diaper fetishist's. Plus some glue.
Ubuntu is not gay, it is bisexual.