Forwarded from: Jason Coombs <jasonc@private> CC: support@private, "'Helmut Hauser'" <helmut.hauser@private>, full-disclosure@private, bugtraq@private, I wrote an information security book last year under contract with Microsoft Press. The book was never published -- among other things it explains truthfully the poor security condition of Windows and offers detailed instructions and advice for defending against Microsoft's bad business practices and incorrect security decisions. URLs for the free electronic book are: (PDF) http://www.forensics.org/IIS_Security_and_Programming_Countermeasures.pdf (Raw Text/PNG Graphics --> safer!) http://www.forensics.org/jasonc/iisforensics.zip The security awareness for Windows communicated by my book would have enabled people to avoid intrusions, infections, damage, and down time from MS Blaster, SQL Slammer/Sapphire, and many of this year's other threats. It would also have helped to educate developers of Web applications so that fewer new vulnerabilities would have been created. A few of the specific warnings provided by my book include: * FrontPage Server Extensions are badly flawed from a security perspective and should never be used. * Ports open by default (RPC/DCOM/SMB/Messenger/Workstation Service/etc) will be found to expose remote exploitable buffer overflow vulnerabilities and therefore must be protected and closed at all costs. * Don't use/rely on Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer because it intentionally ignores known vulnerabilities in order to more often report a happy "you're all patched" message to the admin. * Internet Information Services cannot be trusted out of the box but instead must be carefully security hardened beyond anything that Microsoft normally recommends, and many IIS features must be disabled in order to achieve a trustworthy subset of Microsoft software. * ... more ... If Microsoft intends to launch a PR/advertising campaign against Linux, perhaps it would take a moment out of its busy schedule to explain why it won't publish a book that tells the truth and provides warnings in advance that the only way to safely operate a Windows computer is to subscribe to infosec mailing lists such as bugtraq and full-disclosure in order to remain constantly aware of the real-world condition and capabilities of attackers? Microsoft suppresses awareness of vulnerabilities in order to profit. The only way to achieve security in computing is through awareness. Therefore, Microsoft's profits cause additional insecurity. Go figure. Sincerely, Jason Coombs jasonc@private - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomo@private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Nov 13 2003 - 09:51:58 PST