Re: Gates: 'You don't need perfect code' for good security

[William Warren <hescominsoon () adelphia net>]

Beaty, Bryan wrote:

> Correct me if I am wrong but...
>
> I believe every worm listed below could have been prevented had everyone
> patched their systems. 
the blaster worm preceded the patch so this argument is DOA
> I would like the security community to take more responsibility for
> their own (in)actions. If you were hit by Blaster then you failed to
> enforce a good patch management policy. Who's fault is that? Patch
> management is boring and so we often ignore it. Hackers and worms simply
> take advantage of our laziness. I guess blaster could be a form of
> social engineering. "I know admins don't patch so I can write a worm and
> kill the world." 
note above
> There is no such thing as perfect code. If you want a completely secure
> system you can buy them but they are unbelievably expensive. If you have
> a business justification for something that secure then buy it.
> Otherwise you have to live with what you can get from Linux, UNIX, or
> even Microsoft. 
>
> Microsoft has at least come out with some very good patch management
> systems lately (SUS) and they are free. Red Hat charges me a yearly fee
> for their RHN. 
you do not have to pay for RHN to get redhat patches.  I rh9 for a bit 
on this notebook(had vid issues with all distros here) and was able to 
get all updates without subbing to RHN.  MS has no choice but to come 
out with free patching tools because of the huge amount of patches for 
all MS products.  I run Astaro Security Linux here at the house..blaster 
and its ilk got killed at my then cable modem and never made it in.  I 
have netbios blocked incoming and outgoing and all e-mail is scanned at 
the firewall with all executable attachments being blocked.  However it 
is funny MS wants to make automated patch downloading mandatory when on 
every machine here the automatic windows update did not catch wind of 
new patches available on WU for sometimes after 7 days of the release on 
WU.  MS has a long way to go on their patching..both in terms of quality 
of software and patches and delivery.
> I believe the #1 security threat today is poor patch management. Is that
> Microsoft's fault?
>
> --> I am off of my soap box now. 
the number one security threat today is exploits that target a weak 
security model to a degree that exploits can be so easily 0-day released 
without anyone knowing.  Also even with all patches right now IE(and 
therefore windows) is still subject to remote download and installation 
of programs without user notification(this is widely known just google 
for it).
> Bryan Beaty
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Exibar [mailto:exibar () thelair com] 
> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 1:40 PM
> To: Jeremiah Cornelius; full-disclosure () lists netsys com
> Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] Gates: 'You don't need perfect code' for
> good security
>
>
> What an idiot....
>
>    Take the loveletter worm, when it was first released even if you had
> a 100% up to date AntiVirus software program, you would still get hit
> within
> the first 8 hours.... slammer, blaster, etc all the same thing.    The
> took
> advantage of holes in the OPERATING SYSTEM!!!!
>
>    Yes we have ways of updating our VirusSoftware that works very very
> well, McAfee has E-Policy Orchstrator, which I swear by.
>
>   I'm not going to go on, but if Windows was as secure as Bill Gates and
> company says it is, why was blaster, slammer, codered etc even an issue?
>
>    Exibar
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jeremiah Cornelius" <jeremiah () nur net>
> To: <full-disclosure () lists netsys com>
> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 1:32 PM
> Subject: [Full-disclosure] Gates: 'You don't need perfect code' for good
> security
>
>
>
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > FLAME ON!
> >
> > http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?theaction=61&sid=53897
> >
> > "But there are two other techniques: one is called firewalling and the
>
> other
>
> > is called keeping the software up to date. None of these problems 
> > (viruses and worms) happened to people who did either one of those 
> > things. If you
>
> had
>
> > your firewall set up the right way - and when I say firewall I include
>
>
> > scanning e-mail and scanning file transfer -- you wouldn't have had a 
> > problem. But did we have the tools that made that easy and automatic 
> > and
>
> that
>
> > you could really audit that you had done it? No. Microsoft in 
> > particular
>
> and
>
> > the industry in general didn't have it."
> >
> > "The second is just the updating thing. Anybody who kept their 
> > software up
>
> to
>
> > date didn't run into any of those problems, because the fixes preceded
>
>
> > the exploit. Now the times between when the vulnerability was 
> > published and
>
> when
>
> > somebody has exploited it, those have been going down, but in every 
> > case
>
> at
>
> > this stage we've had the fix out before the exploit. So next is making
>
>
> > it easy to do the updating, not for general features but just for the 
> > very
>
> few
>
> > critical security things, and then reducing the size of those patches,
>
>
> > and reducing the frequency of the patches, which gets you back to the 
> > code quality issues. We have to bring these things to bear, and the 
> > very
>
> dramatic
>
> > things that we can do in the short term have to do with the firewalls 
> > and
>
> the
>
> > updating infrastructure. "
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> > Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux)
> >
> > iD8DBQE/oqq3Ji2cv3XsiSARAlkdAJ0aGkBViYkoE193iZycTmQZohzwbQCg1KDA
> > SjPLY1EEzamQCtIGKwJT1Vk=
> > =mIsY
> > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> >
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>
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--
May God Bless you and everything you touch.

My "foundation" verse:
Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and 
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt 
condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their 
righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.


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