Date: Sun, 03 Feb 2002 01:12:16 -0700 From: "Charles Burns" <burnscharlesn@hotmail.com> To: jylefort@brutele.be, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Security: FreeBSD vs OpenBSD Message-ID: <F263buKJoMqfMn4pLaX0000d7b0@hotmail.com>
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>Your enlightenments are useful, I especially felt enthusiast while browsing >the TrustedBSD website. > >However, at this point of the thread, I should probably precise my toughts. > >I wonder if the security reputation of OpenBSD is only based on the fact >that they ship the system in a secure by default mode, or if the OpenBSD >kernel itself is more secure than the FreeBSD kernel. I'm no expert on OpenBSD (or FreeBSD, for that matter) but I get the impression that OpenBSD's great security record is due to its almost complete lack of default packages (i.e. almost no server daemons are installed by default) and its source code auditing. In reference to the first: Don't install any packages that you don't need and remove any that are already there that you do not need, or replace them. Problem solved. In reference to the second, any time a security bug is found in OpenBSD, I am sure that the FreeBSD programmers are going to fix it if it applies to FreeBSD (which it probably would--they are similar OSes) and FreeBSD has code auditing of its own, which I am sure OpenBSD benefits from to some degree. I personally prefer FreeBSD for everything, but it is a matter of preference. As far as whether OpenBSD's kernel is more secure... Probably not. The vast majority of security flaws in a given OS are flaws in the software packages that are running, not the kernel. I cannot say that the OpenBSD kernel is less secure authoritatively, though. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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