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Rootkit Detection with gdb

Posted by garym on Sat, 12/04/2004 - 10:17

Simple and effective tools strung together as needed, this one of the strongest attractors luring technical people into unix-like operating systems and keeping them there. For example, consider the real-world example, "generate a list of all files below this directory where any of the specified XML tag attributes are null or only numeric, and sort the list by filename paths, grouped by the specific attribute error" ... the concept of global actions across potentially thousands of files is completely alien in some operating system philosophies -- in unix it's a short shell script binding a handfull of text and file utilities, easily prototyped at the command line, ready for production use within the hour.

Mariusz Burdach gives us yet another example of small tools for direct solutions in a excellent tutorial on using the lowly GNU debugger to verify the integrity of your O/S, check for system-call exploits and some tips on ways to automate the audit.

we will make use of just one tool, gdb, the GNU debugger, to detect whether a Linux operating system has been compromised. The package that includes this tool can be found in almost every Linux distribution by default.

His paper also surveys the methods these intruders use to patch the kernel and how to relate this knowledge into appropriate detection tests.

[ via SecurityFocus HOME Infocus: Detecting Rootkits And Kernel-level Compromises I ]

Venezuela saves $2.1M

Posted by garym on Tue, 11/30/2004 - 21:03

How would your own education ministry roll out 380,000 PCs for a total cost of about a grand a piece? Down Venuzuela way, based on some hard experience, their Ministry of Education & Sport (MED) is boosting GNU among their technical and administrative staff, ramping up to run with GNU ...

The ministry believes these platforms have also helped it increase the efficiency and technical expertise of its employees as well as reducing vulnerability to Internet viruses.

MED officials believe it has saved up to 4 billion bolivares (US$2.1 million) this year by implementing open-source platforms in its data center servers...

[ via VHeadline.com ]

Balmer FUD: Linux is Illegal

Posted by garym on Tue, 11/30/2004 - 14:58

This is Steve Balmer, not some third-string assistant to the VP of Fringe Accounts for South Africa -- for those of you who still buy into his all-American dream, not that you'll care, but here is yet another example of the sort of unfounded fear mongering your precious CEO spreads ...

Microsoft's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Steve Ballmer, speaking in Singapore at Microsoft's Asian Government Leaders Forum, warned that governments using the Linux operating system are in risk of violating patent laws. Linux, Ballmer claimed, infringes on more than 228 patents. Ballmer did not elaborate on specific alleged violations.

Balmer is, of course, simply reframing to his advantage the argument against patents given by RMS earlier, where his point was not that these patents form a clear and present danger to the users of the software so much as the abject unenforceability of these claims illustrate the lunacy of software patenting in the first place.

[ via Governments using Linux risk violating law, says Microsoft's CEO - Wikinews Demo ]

RMS: Free as in Freedom

Posted by garym on Fri, 11/19/2004 - 12:44

CNet Asia interviews Richard Stallman about the foundations of software freedom, new WebApp clauses for GPL3 and why we're so very lucky Beethoven didn't file patents.

you'll notice that most people who talk about Linux software treat it as if it were just another technical alternative, nothing deeper than that. So my task is to tell people about the issue of freedom that they usually won't hear.

Aha! -- ok, maybe only a misprint, but then again, maybe not -- did we just see Richard use the term 'Linux'? ...

[ via News & Technology - CNETAsia ]  read more »

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