From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 8 15:59:11 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 54DBE16A4CE for ; Wed, 8 Sep 2004 15:59:11 +0000 (GMT) Received: from post-24.mail.nl.demon.net (post-24.mail.nl.demon.net [194.159.73.194]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E54DF43D55 for ; Wed, 8 Sep 2004 15:59:10 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from nico.meijer@zonnet.nl) Received: from piweblw.demon.nl ([82.161.24.55]:19208 helo=[192.168.2.100]) by post-24.mail.nl.demon.net with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1C54qj-000CNB-TS for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Wed, 08 Sep 2004 15:59:09 +0000 Message-ID: <413F2C4D.8090401@zonnet.nl> Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 17:59:09 +0200 From: Nico Meijer User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040905 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" References: <20040908133320.59CD543D48@mx1.FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <20040908133320.59CD543D48@mx1.FreeBSD.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: BSD display X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 15:59:11 -0000 Hi Steve, > Displaying the OS helps a hacker know > which approach cracking into a box. This may be true. OTOH, not displaying the version of [insert software package of the day here] may invite a 'hacker' to pull a full-scale all-out number on you, trying every possible exploit he can get his hands on. Or simply DDoS you out of this universe. Or launch whatever OS-agnostic attack can be performed. I'm sure there have been long discussions over this 'security by obscurity' thing *somewhere*... ;-) Buhbye... Nico P.S. I guess nothing beats common sense coupled with regular upgrading.