Exploits
Alan Laudicina
Exploits are holes in code. They can be manipulated into allowing
crackers (people who gain unauthorized access to remote machines)
access to your machine or network. Exploits can also be used maliciously
to make a machine lose its Internet connection or reboot (these
types of exploits are referred to as "Denial of Service" exploits).
Exploits are either run locally (on the machine that the cracker
wants to exploit), or remotely (from a machine across a network).
Once a cracker has access to your machine, he can do anything from
change Web pages to use your bandwidth to attack machines across
the Internet.
If a cracker gains access to one machine on your subnet, it puts
your whole network in jeopardy, because the cracker can run a sniffer
or a password cracker and hope the users are using network-wide
passwords (see Common Exploits). This article focuses on Linux and
FreeBSD machines. Although most of the exploits discussed here aren't
OS dependent, many are. So, if you don't have a certain file that
is mentioned, most likely you will have a substitute for it.
How to Protect Yourself
Securing your machine is not something you do once or twice
a month; it is something you should do every one or two days. New
exploits are released every day, and go into the hands of malicious
cracker rings. The first step in protecting yourself is to go through
the packages on your machine, and make sure none of them are exploitable.
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