8.04 still a fine version

[Justin Gruenberg]

On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 2:35 AM, Basil Chupin <blchupin at iinet.net.au> wrote:
> I am not a security expert either but what makes Linux 99.9999% more
> secure than the "other" [ugh!] is that to do any damage to the system
> one has to execute a program as ROOT - this is what the OP really meant
> by the reference to 'password and name'. If some malware does get thru
> and somehow gets activated then the only damage it may be able to do is
> only to whatever is the user's HOME directory; want to do anything
> outside your own HOME directory you need become root (using sudo for
> example) and then also provide a password.

The security model that Linux uses certainly helps a lot of common
security problems (for example, any user space exploit that allows
arbitrary code execution---your damage is limited to the things your
user privileges allow you to change).  However, exploits at the kernel
level can hose more than that.  Privilege escalation attacks would
also be able to damage more than that.

We are a bit safer on linux just for the fact that there aren't as
many of us to exploit.

The moral of the story is this:  keep your system up to date to
minimize your risk.