simple-user
Group: Members
Posts: 1
Joined: Jan. 2005 |
 |
Posted: Jan. 25 2005,16:04 |
 |
Hello,
Please take this as comments and suggestions, for constructive
purposes, not simply as a criticism.
Allow me to leave some of my thoughts here about DSL and MyDSL.
I'm getting better with Enlish but I'm not a native English
speaker, please bear with me and I appreciate it if you can
point out my mistakes.
I think Knoppix Live CD is the greatest leap as of late of Linux
and OSS. Allowing for Knoppix Remastering is another strength
of OSS, I whole-heartedly applaud the effords and great work to
allow a small distribution like DSL to experiment with new and
creative ways to get some work done.
I really love the idea of "small is beautiful" of DSL. Also
love the "automation" idea and real code to do just that of
MyDSL.
My reservations, however, are a bit more complex. Let me cut
to the chase here and say the potential bad things with DSL
and MyDSL. Then give some examples of similar school of thinking.
DSL allows the default "dsl" user/account to have sudo everything.
It is great if you are doing a hdd rescue, or backup. I'll
venture to say it may be OK for your own LAN not connected to
the Internet, let's not argue about this last statement because
everyone has their own opinion. The real problem is if you run
DSL on the internet and someone can exploit some security holes
and became the "dsl" user. They can find out very easily if
not already know "dsl" can sudo everything. Now your machine
is owned by someone else, which can become a spambot, a DDOS-node,
or a node along a trail of crackers' path and they can wipe out
the log files at will.
Sure someone may jump in and argue this is not the case if you
run from CD, or turn off the high-speed connection... I'm simply
pointing out that if you imagine your invention became popular
and everyone is using it, what might happen? In other words,
please be considerate of your actions.
MyDSL is great if I were to customize it for my own use, and can
build and share those *.dsl packages with trusted friends. I enjoy
the similar automation motto, too. The problem with MyDSL is the
very problem of "Ms. LookOut" and "Ms. Internet-Exploder"; Well
you can call that Ms. or Mrs. as in calling some middle-age lady,
or old lady if you like. The idea is to simplify complicated
configuration and setup steps, just simply do things automatically.
It is a well intentioned thing, but if taken beyond the original
intention, it can be very disturbing to say the least.
These "intention" things happened in live, not simply in computer
fields. One example if I remember correctly is that the Nobel
invention of explosives intended for mining or road construction...
but later being used in warfare. Later in life Mr. Nobel try
to setup the Nobel Peace price. An example about "minding your
own business, what I do don't concern you." is the Drunk-Driving
situations.
OK, I'll try to throw in my suggestions of one way I can think of,
but there are many ways to slice the pie...
For DSL, the way it runs from the live-CD I have no problems with
especially to help rescue a troubled-machine. For hard-drive, or
even USB-drive install, it may help if an additional user account
is created without sudo privileges by default. It may be an extra
password to remember but it is probably better for us all on the
internet.
For MyDSL, the folks doing the core of these MyDSL scripts and
programs already know enough about ramdisk and what root can to
the system. Imagine what a rogue MyDSL in the wild can do? Perhaps
using that ramdisk and overwritting the root file structure would
be best done in a chroot/jail environment? Like what the old UML
(User-Mode-Linux) was working on? I say that because I think UML
has recently change focus to tinker with VM-Ware/Bochs ideas. Using
MyDSL in a chroot envrionment with more restriction on sudo might
be quite a bit more work but will be much better for a hard-drive
or USB-drive installation. But be mindful that a rouge MyDSL in
current implementation (2005/01) running even from a CD can wipe
out entire hard drives in just a few moments the way that DOS/Windoze
virii have done. Or it could be worse, it cout turn those machines
into zombies on the internet.
Best regards,
Just a concerned Netizen (Net-citizen).
|
.
DSL Market ,
Great VPS hosting provided by Tektonic
