“My Unix servers are stable and flexible. I set them up and they
run forever, unless someone mucks with them. However, because of
them, I must read security bulletins, download, patch and reboot,
and fret about breakins. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid this
is to use a server OS that has no (or very few) native IP services,
such as MacOS or NetWare (pre NetWare 5).
“Not only does Unix security seem unattainable, so does Unix
installation to a general audience. Many vendors have started to
address this but, we are a long way from a quick installation of a
solid, secure Unix system.”
“By default, most Unix systems implemented for
Internet-accessible services need very few of the packages that are
install by default. For our server, we simply commented out almost
every single line in the /etc/inetd.conf file. Why doesn’t this
happen by default?”