Java flaw could lead to Windows, Linux attacks

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Ahh, anecdotes...

I log onto my machine every day as a non administrator user and I haven't yet needed to use Run As. You must be even worse than a paper MCSE because even they can configure a point and click OS like Windows so that users can run their day to day applications without having to use Run As.

Your anecdotal attempt at refutation is unpersuasive. There are tasks that cannot be performed in Windows as a user. It sounds like your job is simply a position of less responsiblity than the person to whom you are responding, not that they are a bad admin.

Windows is flawed for the simple reason that it has gaping security holes. I have performed installations of Windows that were compromised within seconds of being placed on the internet to be patched. I did this as an experiment. A friend of mine pointed out that she had observed this in one of her boxes. I figured she was engaging in a little ill-tempered hyperbole, so I tried it for fun. It took less than a minute for the system to be compromised. In the hundreds of Linux installations I have performed, that has never happened. Not once, even after years of being on the network. In the substantially greater number of Windows installations, it either does happen or I must take extraordinary measures to prevent it.

Unfortunately, I do not have control over the entire network, so I am not in a position to clean the entire thing up. However, I am rather tired of having to go through a tedious process of slipstreaming, downloading patches subsequent to a service pack and hoping that they cover all of the current exploits. By the way, they don't. This isn't a matter of bad administration. It's a matter of poor Windows design and shoddy workmanship. In Linux, I pop in the business-card Debian CD, select packages and let it rip. It's a thing of beauty.

Also, saying that locking down a Windows box makes you lose more functionality than locking down a Linux box is pure, unadulterated FUD.

No, he's right about that. You're welcome to post proof to the contrary, of course, but you calling it FUD without providing backup for your reasoning causes any reasonable reader to entirely disregard your statement. I say that he's right because I have yet to encounter a single app in Linux to which I cannot grant a user rights. The level of customization that is possible is staggering.

Posted by: Martin Marvinski   Posted on: 11/24/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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