Security in Puppy Linux: running as Root

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Q5sys
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Joined: Thu 11 Dec 2008, 19:49
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#46 Post by Q5sys »

snayak wrote:Dear All,

Thanks to gcmartin for his nice post. I too was not bothered about security till last month.

Last month I started using IRC. Soon I found that somebody caught me and said, why are you using irc as root? I was surprised. He immediately told me my residence address. I was afraid! I thought, he started tracking me. I immediately closed my chat and never going back to irc, with a fear. :-(

So, came and ask here. Immediately got a reply that, don't use puppy! I must say sorry to our friend gposil. In this connection, I shall be happy to say that, puppy, itself is a virus, that does not affect computers but affects humans and that to affects mind. I am infected by puppy, and can you please advice, how can I leave it? Now, I shall blame puppy, who taught me about irc. I recently get to know about irc from attym chat that comes with puppy! :-D

Lets say, I will use irc as root with puppy's firewall, I shall not run any bots/scripts from others, I shall not accept any files from others, I shall not use any irc commands without knowing what it does, shall not use the advices others may give over irc, can anybody still can be an intruder to my pc and steal private informations?

I mean, following all the good practices for security, is there still a chance that one can intrude?

Sincerely,
Srinivas Nayak
I wouldnt worry that much about IRC. Yes it broadcasts your IP address, but thats the way IRC works. That in itself isnt a vulnerability or threat. However your IP address along with tons of other information you post about yourself online can add up to a threat... IF... someone really wanted to get you. You've got to stop and ask yourself, (no disrespect intended) but are you really worth someone's effort to go out of their way to go after?

I'd say you're more at risk by what you post online. I'm going to guess you were using this same screen name. If so... some one could google search it (after all your name is unique). Once they google search it they'd find your posts here. So they'd know you run puppy linux. Anyone researching Puppy LInux would find out everything runs as root... so he wouldnt need an IRC vulnerability to find that out.
Of course if he's on this forum then he can see your signature. Which would lead whoever to know your real name, where you work, what you do, etc.
All of which is way more information than the IP address your IRC client is revealing.

If you are worried for personal safety, think a bit more about what you post on the internet. If someone was wanting to come after you... that information would be far more valuable than your irc client.

But to be clear... I dont think anyone is out to get you. :)

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