Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 21:50:26 +0200 From: Alson van der Meulen <alm@flutnet.org> To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Is FreeBSD more secure than Windows NT or Windows 2000? Message-ID: <20010721215026.B2446@md2.mediadesign.nl> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0107211527090.7405-100000@quasar.phys.vt.edu> References: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0107211527090.7405-100000@quasar.phys.vt.edu>
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On Sat, Jul 21, 2001 at 03:45:05PM -0400, Sung Nae Cho wrote: > Hi, > > One thing that makes me uncomfortable with both Linux and FreeBSD is that > unlike Windows NT, both UNIX clones seem to be less secure for a desktop > use. ( ** Note clones doesn't mean it's any less better than UNIX, it just > means, it's not officially considered UNIX by OPEN-GROUP ** ) I've used > Windows NT 4.0 since '98, Linux since '99, FreeBSD since '00 and finally > gone FreeBSD only on my laptop. However, unlike, Windows NT 4.0, other > people can get access to my confidential files! How? Well, they can just > reinstall the FreeBSD without deleting my $HOME directory and as a root, > they can access all my files! This is a great concern when my laptop gets > stolen! Windows NT is very secure in that matter. Simply reinstalling > Windows NT will not let you read someone else's file. Also, it won't let > you reinstall Windows NT without verifying that you're the right > administrator! During the reinstall, it asks for your root passwd. If > the passwd doesn't match, it won't let you reinstall unless you're willing > to reinstall from scratch (reformat or erase everything before going on to > installation procedure). Now I think that's being secure all the way. Is > there anyway I can do that with FreeBSD? For example, attaching signature > to all my files etc. Use gnupg to encrypt the files, or look for some crypto filesystem (don't know if it's available for FreeBSD) You can read NTFS filesystems even easier by using an NTFS driver for linux or dos, these drivers just ignore the file permissions. The only way to secure sensitive data is using encryption, encrypted swap might be desirable then too, to make sure they can't read the data from your swap partition. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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