[ros-general] Re: TDI-Based Open Source Personal Firewall

[Alex Ionescu]

Hi Richard,

While I agree with your general statement (I don't run an 
antivirus/firewall myself for the same reasons), your argument and 
reasoning is flawed. You are assuming that all exploits that exist are 
patched. They are not. In fact, if you're running Windows XP patched 
with the latest available updates and have your RPC port open (you 
probably do), I can crack your machine -right now-. Without a firewall 
nothing will stop my exploit packet from reaching you; there is no 
published vulnerability for this bug. Do you use IE? I know of 4 
unpatched bugs still in IE6 today that aren't "in the wild". One of them 
can be used to crack your system after going on a web-page. Once again, 
without a firewall, you'll get infected (even with one you will, but the 
payload wouldn't be able to do anything).

Best regards,
Alex Ionescu

Richard Campbell wrote:

> That's your opinion.
>
> Do you know that on this box i've never run a firewall or a virus 
> scanner?  Occasionally i'll run a web based scanner to check 
> suspicious files, etc. but i've never found need for a firewall/virus 
> scanner.  As long as you stay up to date and don't run questionable 
> files you are fine.  A firewall is not NEEDED as long as the OS is 
> properly configured and working.
>
> Richard
>
>
> Ged Murphy wrote:
>