07-08-2016, 03:11 PM
The most common attacks against Debian are brute force root attacks from bots linked to worms present all over the Internet, common to all commercial sites. Look in... /var/log/messages at how many failed root logins are there. Ubuntu may be .../var/log/auth.log if log setting are verbose. Java sped up internet development but of course left millions of opportunity for information exploitation. The most important setting in Debian is...
# Authentication:
PermitRootLogin no
StrictModes yes
... which is why Debian installs that way to begin with. Sudo user access, with non-root password cannot remotely usurp the system in the same way, and not without being noticeable as it happens. Brute force attempts can be site identified and blocked using SSH access tools. Ubuntu is essentially less secure than pure Debian only in the sense that it is more user enterprise friendly, more exposed to Java applications etc. There is no real security benefit to Debian in having UEFI, but some arguable authentication benefits for windows.
UEFI only really evolved because of the growth in disk size beyond 2T, again a problem which Debian could have solved in another way, but the consumer market, and the random top heavy programming style of windows caused its commercial inevitability. The rush of CPU power, and huge disk size in the consumer market is close to its apex now, mainly due to internal CPU instability, and home PC's are losing ground to tablets and netbooks and cell phones. UEFI is here to stay for windows only because BIOS systems are essentially obsolete for powerful home use windows machines. OEM CSM's are disappearing as I write.
That said I would add, that windows cloud systems are really a take on the old mainframe / terminal emulator workstation office systems of the eighties. Tablet devices fit very nicely into this future though anachronistic MS model. Soon (less than ten years) windows consumer computing products will be in the $50 to $500 range, and the money will be made on monthly cloud service computing charges much like the cell phone industry model. The cloud server will do the work, and the storage, and the windows home device will pay for time for program application activation and usage as a cloud service, and the computing power will be just as robust, and even more cloying of your private information. Buying and selling on the Internet is about making money. Information spying will return to in house MS propriety where it began in the first place. I cannot see any future scenario that allows Ubuntu to remain free of proprietary and/or governmental encumbrances. Viruses, bots, worms, mal-ware, spy-ware, etc. are all the product of information gathering, here to stay, and hardly outside the fundamental philosophy of computing in general, which is essentially learning more about ourselves and our world. We are going to know each other a lot more intimately than perhaps we want to in the future, but it is certain we will... PermitRootLogin...no. for now I guess. Enterprise built the WWW, not Debian, and MS essentially ignored the cell phone market for a reason.
Build a false information node for your SSH remote connections, and collect your own data from brute force attackers. Turnabout is fair play, and even free enterprise within the MS paradigm. Finally UEFI adds no security to base Debian whatsoever, just an awkward OEM polluted way of GUID handling. The U stands for any hope of a consumer/home free Linux future in the MS world. It is ridiculous to believe that OEM CPU's, mobo's, and SSD's cannot be built to deny the use of Linux with them. Of course they can. The market is not ready for that yet, but it will be. It's business friends, and it drives our future, whether we want it to or not. We are entering the age of petaflops. Information security will inevitably become the purview of corporate entities, and governments only, and simply passe, and/or impossible for the home computer.
Trinidad
# Authentication:
PermitRootLogin no
StrictModes yes
... which is why Debian installs that way to begin with. Sudo user access, with non-root password cannot remotely usurp the system in the same way, and not without being noticeable as it happens. Brute force attempts can be site identified and blocked using SSH access tools. Ubuntu is essentially less secure than pure Debian only in the sense that it is more user enterprise friendly, more exposed to Java applications etc. There is no real security benefit to Debian in having UEFI, but some arguable authentication benefits for windows.
UEFI only really evolved because of the growth in disk size beyond 2T, again a problem which Debian could have solved in another way, but the consumer market, and the random top heavy programming style of windows caused its commercial inevitability. The rush of CPU power, and huge disk size in the consumer market is close to its apex now, mainly due to internal CPU instability, and home PC's are losing ground to tablets and netbooks and cell phones. UEFI is here to stay for windows only because BIOS systems are essentially obsolete for powerful home use windows machines. OEM CSM's are disappearing as I write.
That said I would add, that windows cloud systems are really a take on the old mainframe / terminal emulator workstation office systems of the eighties. Tablet devices fit very nicely into this future though anachronistic MS model. Soon (less than ten years) windows consumer computing products will be in the $50 to $500 range, and the money will be made on monthly cloud service computing charges much like the cell phone industry model. The cloud server will do the work, and the storage, and the windows home device will pay for time for program application activation and usage as a cloud service, and the computing power will be just as robust, and even more cloying of your private information. Buying and selling on the Internet is about making money. Information spying will return to in house MS propriety where it began in the first place. I cannot see any future scenario that allows Ubuntu to remain free of proprietary and/or governmental encumbrances. Viruses, bots, worms, mal-ware, spy-ware, etc. are all the product of information gathering, here to stay, and hardly outside the fundamental philosophy of computing in general, which is essentially learning more about ourselves and our world. We are going to know each other a lot more intimately than perhaps we want to in the future, but it is certain we will... PermitRootLogin...no. for now I guess. Enterprise built the WWW, not Debian, and MS essentially ignored the cell phone market for a reason.
Build a false information node for your SSH remote connections, and collect your own data from brute force attackers. Turnabout is fair play, and even free enterprise within the MS paradigm. Finally UEFI adds no security to base Debian whatsoever, just an awkward OEM polluted way of GUID handling. The U stands for any hope of a consumer/home free Linux future in the MS world. It is ridiculous to believe that OEM CPU's, mobo's, and SSD's cannot be built to deny the use of Linux with them. Of course they can. The market is not ready for that yet, but it will be. It's business friends, and it drives our future, whether we want it to or not. We are entering the age of petaflops. Information security will inevitably become the purview of corporate entities, and governments only, and simply passe, and/or impossible for the home computer.
Trinidad
All opinions expressed and all advice given by Trinidad Cruz on this forum are his responsibility alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or methods of the developers of Linux Lite. He is a citizen of the United States where it is acceptable to occasionally be uninformed and inept as long as you pay your taxes.