oiaohm wrote:Linux servers and clients are protected by either apparmor or selinux. Both control what applications can and cannot do. Windows out box no application access control. I do mean none. If you use the quick switch between users one is admin and one is a limited account. You can reach from the limited account to the desktop of the admin user and control it. This is only a example of many secuirty holes in windows that means once you in the system is yours.
The problem of Windows is that, if you want to use an old program, not written for the NT Architecture, you need the maximum access.
Keep in mind that, the users that use XP are not nerds that use all their time to understard how the system work.
If have hear a lot of times (even from hardware technicians) that: "Windows must work like a tasker. They don't have to understand what backup is ecc.".
This ideas of windows usage are very stupid, but a lot of people think like this.
Malware and so on are not present in Linux, because, it don't have a great market share, and, think that you don't have to keep in consideration the security layer, on a OS, only because is not so spread as another, is the clear example of Security by Obscurity.
Do you want to fight this problem, on ROS? Good. Start to think about how to make the configuration more efficient against the classic windows bugs. The OS Hardening is the source (es. making the Local Protection Settings more extended and easy to setup).
After that, you can start to think about to implement a REAL firewall, and, maybe, a HIDS (Integrity Checker is a good idea) and a HIPS (a Core Force-Like, maybe introducing the concept of Capabilities even in Windows). With a configuration more modular, but efficient, you can make ROS secure more than Windows, with no use of Antivirus and Anti-Malware.
For example, there's a configuration, on Windows XP, that let an user (even if he is using ad administrator account) to not permit the dialer-injection. And this is a stupid configuration.
I have heard that, in ROS, the default user would be a limited account. Keep in mind that, if you set it with too few privilege, the user will switch to Administrator in a little time. Try to find out a middle way is always a good idea. You can't remove the risk, but you can limit it.
Another thing is, for example, that Linux don't give the Execution Privilege, as a default privilege on the binaries.