Why you need a firewall

[Derek Atkins]

Yes, but the vast majority of those probes are against Windows..
Yes, you need a firewall to protect the Internet from Windows (no,
I do not look at it the other way around! ;)

However, I still maintain that a properly-maintained Linux box does
not need a firewall.

-derek

Chris Tresco <rardoe at rarcom.com> writes:

> Something to add...
> 
> A lot of users out there would be absoltely flabberghasted (sp?) at the
> number of times per day my linux box acting as a router/firewall for my
> ATT Broadband cable connection is probed or attacked.  I run snort to
> log these things... I honestly get at least 100 attack attempts and
> probes per day.... it only takes one of these to work successfully for
> someone to be compromised.
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, 2002-10-24 at 11:48, David Kramer wrote:
> > I'm sure most of you heard that on Tuesday, the internet's root DNS servers 
> > were crippled by a Denial Of Service (DOS) attack, where the machines were 
> > flooded with endless garbage IP packets so the real DNS requests couldn't get 
> > through.
> > 
> > What I recently learned, though, is this was really a Distributed Denial Of 
> > Service (DDOS) attack.  That means that hackers hacked into hundreds of other 
> > peoples' home computers and then remotely commanded them all to attach the 
> > root DNS servers at the same time, probably without the owners' knowledge.
> > 
> > What I'm trying to point out here is that it's easy to say "well, I don't have 
> > any important data on my machine hooked up to a cablemodem or DSL line, so I 
> > don't need a firewall", but that doesn't mean your machine can't be used by 
> > hackers to hurt others.
> > 
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > DDDD   David Kramer                           http://thekramers.net
> > DK KD  
> > DKK D  "Where's the kaboom?  There was supposed to be an
> > DK KD  earth-shattering kaboom."
> > DDDD                                           - Marvin the Martian
> > _______________________________________________
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> > 
> 
> 
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-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available