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CSCD 303 Essential Computer Security Spring 2013. Lecture 8 - Desktop Security OS Security Compared Reading: See References. Overview. Briefly, Overview of Linux Security OS Vulnerabilities Linux Windows Max OS X. National Vulnerability Database. National Vulnerability Database
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CSCD 303Essential Computer SecuritySpring 2013 Lecture 8 - Desktop Security OS Security Compared Reading: See References
Overview • Briefly, Overview of Linux Security • OS Vulnerabilities • Linux • Windows • Max OS X
National Vulnerability Database • National Vulnerability Database • Classifies and organizes reported vulnerabilities for various software programs and systems • Mitre has the contract to maintain this database http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search?execution=e2s1 You can search this database for all the vulnerabilities associated with a system
Evaluation: Windows Vs. LinuxVulnerabilities • The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) uses its own set of metrics to evaluate severity of any given security flaw • Query CERT vulnerabilities notes database for “Windows” and “Linux” keywords to examine metrics for 40 most recent reported vulnerabilities • A number between 0 and 180 expresses final metric, where number 180 represents the most serious vulnerability • The ranking is not linear • In other words, a vulnerability ranked 100 is not twice as serious as a vulnerability ranked at 50 • CERT considers any vulnerability with a score of 40 or higher to be serious enough to be a candidate for a special CERT Advisory and US-CERT technical alert
CERT: Evaluation of Query Results for Microsoft and Linux • CERT web search capabilities do not produce perfectly desirable results in terms of granularity or longevity • Especially True for Linux • The “Linux” search results include a number of Oracle security vulnerabilities that are common to Linux, UNIX, and Windows • In Top 40 CERT results for “Microsoft”, • Top entry containing the severity metric of 78 • 5 entries have a severity rating of 40 or greater • In Top 40 CERT results for Linux • Top entry containing the severity metric of 26.52 • None other entry have a severity rating 27 or greater
Vulnerabilities http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=758 • Recent years, lots of comparisons • 2007 brought improved security with Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard • Compiled security flaws in Mac OS X and Windows XP and Vista and placed them side by side • Vulnerability statistics from third party vendor Secunia and broke them down by Windows XP flaws, Vista flaws, and Mac OS X flaws
Table of Flaws Windows vs. Mac Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS X vulnerability stats for 2007 XP Vista XP + Vista Mac OS X Total extremely critical 3 1 4 0 Total highly critical 19 12 23 234 Total moderately critical 2 1 3 2 Total less critical 3 1 4 7 Total flaws 34 20 44 243 Average flaws/month 2.8 1.7 3.7 20.3
Analysis of Data • Apple had more than 5 times number of flaws per month than Windows XP and Vista in 2007 • Most of these flaws were serious • This seems to go against conventional wisdom • Noteworthy ... • Windows Vista showed fewer flaws than Windows XP, Windows Defender and Sidebar added 4 highly critical flaws to Vista that weren’t present in Windows XP
Update - Pwn2Own 2009 • Want to guess the results of 2009? • Charlie Miller has done it again • 2nd consecutive year, security researcher hacked into a fully patched MacBook computer by exploiting a security vulnerability in Apple’s Safari browser • Miller launched his drive-by attack and claimed the $10,000 top prize. He also got to keep the MacBook machine • Miller said he came to the CanSecWest security conference with a plan to hack into Safari and had tested the exploit carefully to ensure “it worked the first time.” http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/pwn2own-2009-safarimacbook-falls-in-seconds/2917 Current results beyond 2009 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn2Own
Microsoft Vulnerabilities http://www.sans.org/top-cyber-security-risks/#trends • September 2009 • Over 90% of the attacks recorded for Microsoft targeted the buffer overflow vulnerability described in the Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067
References The Register Security Report: Linux vs. Windows http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/22/security_report_windows_vs_linux/#execsummary http://blog.loaz.com/timwang/index.php/2008/03/30/security_vulnerability_showdown_mac_os_v Security vulnerability showdown, Mac vs. Linux vs. Ubuntu http://blog.loaz.com/timwang/index.php/2008/03/30/security_vulnerability_showdown_mac_os_v IBM report: Vulnerabilities still going unpatched http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10154662-83.html Mac versus Windows vulnerability stats for 2007 http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=758