How secure is my openSUSE system, really?

English Open Chat
21

On 06/14/2013 10:46 AM, futureboy wrote:
> I think it would be practical to have some kind of daemon
> intrusively tell me that something may be happening (like a motion
> sensor).

caveat (in addition to the one in my sig): i have used some of these,
i am using some of these…i guarantee that none of them individually
or in any combination will give you 100% security (that is only
possible with that machine no one can touch or use, even from afar,
because it is not running and not connected)…so, are you familiar
with these (some of the programs are in the openSUSE repos, and some
report what is happening, and others try to blocking bad stuff–all
must be used as intended to have any reasonable effect):

Rootkit Hunter http://freshmeat.net/projects/rkhunter

Check Rootkit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chkrootkit

Unhide http://www.unhide-forensics.info/

Open Source Security http://www.ossec.net

Wireshark http://www.wireshark.org/

BASTILLE-LINUX http://bastille-linux.sourceforge.net/

Policy Kit http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/polkit/

some of the below articles are kinda old…security has been an
active area for a LONG time:

http://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/html/openSUSE/opensuse-security/

https://en.opensuse.org/Category:Security

https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Security

https://en.opensuse.org/Concepts_security

articles http://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/security

articles
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-security-4/security-references-45261/

–
dd
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat

22

I worry about more important life issues such as what I am grilling out tonight - steaks, chops, or shrimp, and how much beer I am drinking.

23

On 2013-06-14 14:16, RichardET wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2564677 Wrote:
>> On 2013-06-13 21:46, RichardET wrote:
>>> So what if the US government captures your communications - again , if
>>> you are not communicating with terrorists, then you have nothing to
>>> worry about.
>>
>> Yes, I do. It is not my goverment, nor my country. I can’t go to court
>> about my violated privacy. It hurts me feelings.

> I worry about more important life issues such as what I am grilling out
> tonight - steaks, chops, or shrimp, and how much beer I am drinking.

And you wonder why people all over the world dislike North Americans?

:open_mouth:

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

24

Don’t worry Carlos. I dispise a lot of North Americans to…And I am one.

25

On 06/15/2013 09:36 AM, Jonathan R wrote:
> I dispise a lot of North Americans to…And I am one.

+1

–
dd

26

Everyone I’ve met in various countries enjoys grilling tasty foods and drinking beer… Are they the exception? Is grilling foods and drinking beer wrong?

27

On 06/15/2013 10:26 AM, Mikeb85 wrote:
> Is grilling foods and drinking beer wrong?

no, but grilling beer is!

–
dd

28

I’m pretty interested in this program called Open Source Security http://www.ossec.net, but I don’t see an openSUSE package for it. I am going to install it and mess around with it, it seems like the suite that I really want to run.

25
DenverD, Have you used it?

29

On 2013-06-15 10:05, dd wrote:
> On 06/15/2013 09:36 AM, Jonathan R wrote:
>> I dispise a lot of North Americans to…And I am one.
>
> +1

I don’t despise them, as a whole, not at all. They make very
entertaining movies, for instance :wink:

I have been there a little. I lived in Canada for a while, which is
North America, but not /this/ North America. I heard my share of tales
and jokes. I find some of their idiosyncrasies and paranoia funny.

For example, the water bottles in airports. I depart from Europe. My
water bottle is thrown away. I buy another in the secured area. I arrive
a Washington. My new water bottle is thrown away - it comes from a
secure area, but not /their/ area. (They could ask me to drink that
water and prove thus that it is water - or perhaps not, I dunno what
they really are looking for) Oh, well… they do their job to the
letter. If a plane explodes, they did their job (not laughable).

The trick is to carry an empty bottle, and fill it on a tap inside the
barrier.

Another “detail”: you can not carry food, it is taken. In Montreal I
remember they had a dog or two to sniff food out. Apparently, to avoid
contamination. Sausages is most popular item, they change with
nationalities. I have seen people sit at the custom entrance to eat
their food in front of the officials, so that it is not wasted (or eaten
by somebody else).

But they can take food to my country, no problem.

We had a person working with us from the USA once. When he was going
back, the previous day, we invited him on a “bar tour” (ir de tascas).
He had never tried our cured ham, and he loved it. Somehow, we were told
that he threw away most of his clothes and took back to the USA 4 sides
of ham in his suitcase.

I really hope there was no dog waiting for him X’.)

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

30

On 06/15/2013 01:06 PM, futureboy wrote:
> DenverD, Have you used it?

no.
(looks too complicated and labor intensive to me…but if you come
back and say it was a piece of cake to install, run and . . .)

–
dd

31

I don’t find it funny, I find it very, very irritating. I loathe flying and will avoid it at all costs… wait, that’s not true, if my job is paying for the flight, i will take it but I’m not happy about it. I don’t like having to take my shoes off and get them scanned so I am pretty big on using flip-flops when I fly.

I’m going to download it and see if it really does have a small memory and cpu foot print. If so, I will use it and see if I can effectively make and RPM out of it. If not, I will not use it and let you know my reasons for not liking it. I do think I need to run something that watches my system for me. Something robust enough to be very useful but simple enough to be sustainably (is that a real word?) useful. I mostly just want some kind of notification anytime there is suspected port intrusion. That is what concerns me most. Some kind of firewall notifier would make me most happy.

Cheers!

32

On Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:06:03 +0000, futureboy wrote:

> but I don’t see an openSUSE package for it.

I see it in the search at software.opensuse.org.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

33

On Sat, 15 Jun 2013 23:45:55 +0000, Jim Henderson wrote:

> On Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:06:03 +0000, futureboy wrote:
>
>> but I don’t see an openSUSE package for it.
>
> I see it in the search at software.opensuse.org.

Although if you actually drill in and look at the packages built, openSUSE
12.x isn’t in the list.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

34

All joking aside, what’s the deal with all the user paranoia out there? Is Interpol knocking at your door? Unless you are doing what Pete Townsend was doing, what’s to worry about? I reccommend a French movie such as “The Closet” - it will take your mind off this stuff which you cannot change anyway, and trust me, you might not really want to, because communications snooping is necessary in a world where literally hundreds of millions of deranged, stupid humans spend every waking moment mulling on, or acting on ways to annhilate western civilation.

35

Apathy like that is what they count on. It allows them to carry this out impudently.

communications snooping is necessary in a world where literally hundreds of millions of deranged, stupid humans spend every waking moment mulling on, or acting on ways to annhilate western civilation.

Cracking down on terrorism is one thing. But what’s a terrorist? Nuclear activists? Occupy? Anything that makes DC uncomfortable?

36

On Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:26:02 +0000, RichardET wrote:

> All joking aside, what’s the deal with all the user paranoia out there?
> Is Interpol knocking at your door?

There is such a thing as vigilance - also a component of good security
practices.

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

37

On 2013-06-16 13:26, RichardET wrote:

> All joking aside, what’s the deal with all the user paranoia out there?
> Is Interpol knocking at your door?

No, they are getting inside without knocking, which is worse.
And worse still that you do not see the problem.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)

38

You mean they need my permission, consent or have a directive before doing such?

You mean all this tracking emails and social sites would be sort of like wire tapping and needs a warrant? Or the tapping and tracking of cell phones? You mean I can’t say … fill in the blank?

I musta been living in a dream world then. You just had to go and wake me up

If you missed it, that was complete sarcasm. If you arent aware yet, Google it.

39

Interesting reading this thread provides.

My only concern is with software that might spy on me. I’ve read many articles, even those talking about a Ubuntu spyware on the dash which gives the info about what you search and presents you with numerous amazon suggestions.

I trust openSUSE as a very secure system, but what if there’s an official software (like that one in Ubuntu) that spies on us?

I read many things about Novell and Microsoft, but I’m not in a position to say anything, not to mention Novell doesn’t own openSUSE anymore.

BUT (JUST AN EXAMPLE), let’s say The Attachment Group decides to make a deal with Microsoft in order to get something on openSUSE, and Microsoft pushes a closed source software. This software could possibly spy on us without our knowledge.
Now, I don’t know if there’s any closed source software that are installed by default, by I would like to know more about it.
I also would like to know if any of you know some software that is known to provide info about us.

40

On Sun, 28 Jul 2013 23:36:01 +0000, amarildojr wrote:

> Interesting reading this thread provides.
>
> My only concern is with software that might spy on me. I’ve read many
> articles, even those talking about a Ubuntu spyware on the dash which
> gives the info about what you search and presents you with numerous
> amazon suggestions.
>
> I trust openSUSE as a very secure system, but what if there’s an
> official software (like that one in Ubuntu) that spies on us?
>
> I read many things about Novell and Microsoft, but I’m not in a position
> to say anything, not to mention Novell doesn’t own openSUSE anymore.

Let’s be clear about one thing:

NOVELL NEVER OWNED OPENSUSE!!!

> BUT (JUST AN EXAMPLE), let’s say The Attachment Group decides to make
> a deal with Microsoft in order to get something on openSUSE, and
> Microsoft pushes a closed source software. This software could possibly
> spy on us without our knowledge.
> Now, I don’t know if there’s any closed source software that are
> installed by default, by I would like to know more about it.
> I also would like to know if any of you know some software that is known
> to provide info about us.

Let’s be clear about one thing.

The openSUSE project “owns” openSUSE. None of the sponsors own it.

So let’s stop spreading FUD about “Novell” or “TAG” or “SUSE” or
“Microsoft” doing something to taint openSUSE.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C