From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Jun 8 19:19: 6 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from smtpsrv0.isis.unc.edu (smtpsrv0.isis.unc.edu [152.2.1.139]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3646F37C107 for ; Thu, 8 Jun 2000 19:19:03 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from crimsun@email.unc.edu) Received: from login3.isis.unc.edu (login3.isis.unc.edu [152.2.1.100]) by smtpsrv0.isis.unc.edu (8.9.3/8.9.1) with ESMTP id WAA07705; Thu, 8 Jun 2000 22:19:01 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from crimsun@localhost) by login3.isis.unc.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) id WAA97634; Thu, 8 Jun 2000 22:19:00 -0400 Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 22:18:59 -0400 (EDT) From: "Daniel T. Chen" X-Sender: crimsun@login3.isis.unc.edu To: "David J. Kanter" Cc: FreeBSD questions Subject: Re: Security for a lonely desktop In-Reply-To: <20000608174110.A24158@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG David, There is no better prevention than proactivity. Although it may seem extreme to secure a dialup machine, virtually every situation is one where making sure one's machine is less exploitable is desirable. My suggestion is to at least disable the services in /etc/inetd.conf. Also, adding "ALL: ALL" to /etc/hosts.deny requires no more than several seconds (do it just to be safe ;-). Anything beyond that, well, that's your choice (as it still is! ;-). dtc --- Daniel T. Chen crimsun@sausage.masticators.org On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, David J. Kanter wrote: > I run FreeBSD on a desktop, hook up to the Internet via a modem (with > dynamic IP address assigning) and am the only user of this machine. Is > security that much of an issue for someone like me, such that I'd have to > make changes to the default FreeBSD set up? > > I've read about closing down inetd services that I'd never use: telnet, ftp, > etc. Even turning off the sendmail daemon. Or, compiling a firewall into my > kernel. But are these really necessary for a guy like me? > > I'm interested in what people have to say. > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message