I downloaded a cracked version of a hardware firewall off a p2p network, is that safe?

bobbette
ok, assuming your mac is running mac os x:
a) Are the ports that I don't have firewalled and that are open for various things such as music sharing, instant messenging programs, etc. gaping open for people to invade my computer? I close them off when I'm not using most of them, but a couple of them are generally open at all times.
If there is a buffer overflow exploitable within the music sharing programs you are running, and someone bothers to write exploitation code for that program targeted at a mac, then the user account the program is running as can be compromized. If there are locally exploitable privlege escalation issues with mac os x then the entire computer could be compromized.
b) Should I get a hardware firewall, since I'm going to eventually move out of university residence? If so, what kind should I get? It would only be for me :)
It is a good idea for anyone. I have used netgear, but the various brands don't seem to differ too much.
c) Does a Linksys wireless router have the same kind of built-in hardware firewall protection as an actual hardware firewall?
don't know offhand
d) What the fark does a hardware firewall do, anyhow?
At the most basic level, they provide NAT (network address translation) which has the effect of preventing computers on the internet from connecting directly to your computer unless you provide that permission in the configuration for the firewall. More capable units have additional features: blocking "inapproprate" websites, maintaining state information (basically allows conditional incoming connection to your computer based upon what connections you make from your computer to the internet), scan and exploit detection (sometimes with attempts to block the scan or exploit), etc.
These features reduce what can be sent from the internet to your computer and can make attempts to exploit your computer much more difficult.

umm i need some technical advice... my school net and firewall disagree with one another. for my firewall to be up (nortons) i need to never acess the internet. its stupid. help me. Bau­erma­ne­ti­cxecom

Nijika:

*cough cough* IfyouwereusingaMacintoshyou'dstillhaveyourbootsector *cough*

Woah, frog in my throat there.

Right on, brother! I am running a TRS-80, and I have never never ever had even the remotest problem with these things whatsoever. In fact, I have never heard of any TRS-80 having a problem like this.

No viruses, no worms, updated every 24 hours, and I can install software with one command. That and I have ultimate nerd bragging rights.

Of course, if you want to get your feet wet, there's nothing better than Knoppix - download an ISO, burn to CD, stick in drive, reboot - and you're using a real OS... and when you're done, reboot and you can go back to Windoze... not that you'd particularly care to.

jpe_dty: thank you! And you've just convinced me to get off of my lazy ass and make a new general-use account without administrator privileges as my main account.

knoppix is very good. Thats a pretty big leap for the average user though

bobbette:
thank you!
You are welcome!
And you've just convinced me to get off of my lazy ass and make a new general-use account without administrator privileges as my main account.
That is also a very good idea. I do the same with Windows 2000. I am trying to put together a bsd desktop, but have been a bit lazy getting around to making it fully functional (fonts, mplayer etc.).
(...had enough for tonight; heading to bed...)

I wiped out my old '97 trans am on black ice once on I-35.

/works for peanuts

/elephant man

only idiot users get virus's. I've been using windows and the internet since the 3.1 days and have never used a firewall and have NEVER once gotten a virus, worm or anything. I do have a built in firewall on my router, but I turn it it off it's too much of a hassle to deal with and causes more problems then it helps. I scan my system for virus's once a week and haven't had a hit yet, but I do it anyway just in case I ever get my first virus which since I haven't gotten one in the 15+ years I've been using windows I don't think is going to happen anytime soon.

/Adds kryptin420 to list

kryptin420:

Dont know what crack your smoking, but when i set up Windows boxen for my friends i havent converted to linux yet, i get hit by blaster in a guarenteed 45 seconds or less... it SATURATES networks, and nothing needs to be opened... my first act is the fixblast and removeblaster tools, which takes forever, because the comp is zobiefied by 99.4% network usage for spreading blaster... then i have to patch XP with the service pack and Windows updates... And people ask me why ive got 4 linux boxes and a NetBSD (literal, it sits in my kitchen) Toaster to route my network.

The toaster allows me to telnet in and start the heating element, and works as my Broadband router... it was a fun hack to do, only took about 30 dollars in parts.

WombatControl - Of course, if you want to get your feet wet, there's nothing better than Knoppix

Except Knoppix doesn't run on my PowerBook, and the other distros I've tried to install or use as Live CDs (Mandrake, Gentoo) haven't worked. Grrr!

Not that I'm dissatisfied with OS X (couldn't be happier), but everyone experiments in college, right?

skinink: if you like readable manuals and ease of use, why not just switch to a mac?

although i don't think everquest is availabe for the mac... (farked if i know, really.) but aren't most games available in console versions?

bobbette, my lynksis wireless router does have a firewall

i imagine your does too, but go ahead and type the model number and firewall into google.

also, dont forget to encrypt the wireless node and the recieving laptop

skinink

Also, most games come out for windows. As does the majority of hardware, apps, ect

Alot of games i enjoy i can get working with WineX, and a little fun with your fstab allows you to use 99% of windows hardware with linux, if you know the filesystem of your camera, or mp3 player or what not, and the 2.6 kernel has V4L by default, allowing most webcams. I understand your point with manuals tho... use the man (whatever) command, and poke... takes a couple months, but its worth it

bobbette:

although i don't think everquest is availabe for the mac

Yeah, it is available. I dunno how good it is, though, since I don't play games.

I am now convinced that kryptin420 is an old lady who uses the internet to check a bridge message board once a day, never touches any filesharing programs, and doesn't know what "that email business" is. Because before my last Windows computer upped and died, I was totally swamped with viruses. Maybe not when I was using Windows 3.1 (I too am like so oldschool! Lol!one!) But from Windows 98-ish onwards, I've encountered a lot of viruses, even running a cornucopia of software anti-virus programs (MacAfee, Norton, etc.)

Arcanum: I'm not using it right now... connected by cables currently in my tiny residence room. But in the future I certainly will be keeping my network encrypted (it kind of scares me that for about a year and a half, before my father bought a new g-standard wireless router and actually read the instructions about encryption, our network was wiiiide open to anyone who came near our house.)

People, seriously. Be behind a router. Restrict all port access other than HTTP, FTP, whatever you use to play games, and any other services you use frequently. Problem mostly solved.

No problems with the IBM dual 5.25" floppy, 8088.

But to tell the truth (out here in the dialup delta), from early `90's 486 to current P4 (DOS-win2k) procom-ie6 - only one whimpy wad of malicious code - and that was sent by my sister-in-law, who happens to work for MS. So, I guess I can blame Billy G. and my brother's poor taste.

Just leave the executables be. ZA and Adaware are sufficient, if you cultivate and maintain the degree of paranoia required for enjoyable surfing: `there be sharks'-`The Outlook is decidedly murky'...

Mask why use WINE when you can use vmware and run windows in its full native environment. Doesnt make sense, linux doesnt support DirectX 9. Wine is outdated.

Use vmware and you get the full power of windows....
aka the games, and everything works out of the box. And you can even have a happy paper clip help you with typing documents

macker

Because i like to avoid running microsoft code. Because i like to support an open source application. Because it works well enough. Because the last time i tried VMware, it only supported software 3d rendering. Because i support the philosophy behind the FOSS (Free [as in thought, not {always} as in beer] Open Source Software) movement.

On the plus side, i think thats the first time ive ever used 3 layer deep nested parens/brakets/brokets... now i just need to add angles...

I bet most of you guys have nothing more important on your hard drives than porn. so why fight over how to protect it.

Windows 2000 and XP are easy enough to secure, but you should always use mutiple firewalls (hardware and software). The recovery console can also restore boot sectors and the MBR (like after a grub installation goes horribly awry.

Here is a good guide for securing XP (sorry, I have never learned html).

http://nsa2.www.conxion.com/winxp/guides/wxp-1.pdf

ok Mask, ya Im all for open source, I support OSDL, I hate SCO, blah Blah...

But running a full version of windows in a contained partition using vmware will beat wine anyday. sorry. The only real drawback is it uses its own graphics driver... but still a huge leap over wine.

It really comes in handy, you'de be surprised.

macker
But running a full version of windows in a contained partition using vmware will beat wine anyday. sorry.

You, sir, are an idiot. I just got done saying i dont want to run any microsoft code. Therefore in my situation, wine beats VMware, because it meets my requirements, while VMware does not. Lets review my games:

Quake 3: native linux version
Unreal Tournament 2004: native linux version
Soldier of Fortune 2: works in wineX
Battlefield 1942: works in wineX

WineX was free (cvs version), VMware is not. It also keeps me from running microsoft code as much as possible. Now review my scenario, and tell me why VMware would be better.

ok I did have the blaster worm for about 10minutes when I downloaded a security update. I regularly download any security update for windows just in case. I do use kazaa and emule for p2p I just don't download anything that could be easily disguised as a virus. The most threatening things I get are crumby spyware which I purge from my system each day (mostly tracking cookies). I very rarely use e-mail and mostly communicate through AIM. Biggest reason I switch off my firewall is due to download problems through aim and problems running Everquest which will knock me off every few minutes if I run it while its on. Think what you will, but I'm virus free.

Can we find the Zestyfind people and pummel them?

macker

Dunno, most games run faster/better for me under WineX than on a full 'doze install running under vmware on my gentoo box.

vmware is free for 30 days. keys are everyware.

I've never had any luck with those games on linux. FPS are too slow, evenb witha radeon card.

If you refuse or dont want to run to run their code, thats the end of it. Personally i dont care, im forced to run their code in the *real world*. Most people are, even if you dont agree with it and know a better soluction.

UT2004 tarball or .exe?

Howlingfrog thats surprising.

My needs, I have to run windows on vmware, as i'm sure not ready to dedicate my machine to it.

When I used WINE, it was in it's infancy. Maybey it's much better now. It gets a bad rep, but if games run as great as you say, maybey it's worht a second look as a gaming solution in addition to vmware.

macker

vmware is free for 30 days. keys are everyware.

I dont use those for the same reason that i dont pirate windows... if your expecting a profit, and people steal it, thats wrong... i do what i can to help people profit from things they want to... Bought a couple copies of RedHat... 7.3 and 9, i believe. There are some markets for proprietary software (games) and opensourcew... both deserve a profit for good code. I shouldnt have to pay more money to run a product i just bought, hence using an open source OS and project.

as for your Real World comment, my workplace uses nothing but linux and BSD, we have 2 windows workstations, and that just to check the rendering of our pages under IE. I have never had problems with my linux installation... and for FPS, most games run faster under WineX then windows, halflife most noticeably gets an 8% speed boost.

UT2004 is a .bin file, so essentially its an exe in windows terminology

btw bobbette

if I'm an old lady checking bridge boards wtf am I doing at fark.com? If only a few friends know your e-mail address and you know what your downloading it's quite easy to have no troubles with virus's.

I don't claim to be mister computer guru, but I've been on various forms of high-speed internet for 3 years now, and dial-up before that pretty extensively. I used Zonealarm for my internet security all alone up to a year ago, when I switched providers and got a router, so now I have a hardware firewall too.

I scan for viruses about once/month. Because I never get them. Ever. I scan files I download from questionable sites, I don't use Microsoft internet programs (outlook or IE), and I make sure I've got some kind of firewall. Simple enough.

Of course, I don't suggest everyone stop using Outlook and Internet Explorer. If everyone stops, then the hackers looking for easy targets will have to start hacking the other programs too, as opposed to just hitting the 90% or so of people using the Microsoft programs these days. So by all means, keep using those things; you're good bait.

You don't have to run faster than the bear. Just faster than the other guy can.

openoffice or star office doesnt cut it. If not for that, I imagine more would use alternative OS's.

MS dominates the way business communicates (word, powerpoint, etc). Call me when businesses transact in .txt files, or openoffice files that wont recognize official .doc formatting.

congrats if you can survive on just bsd and linux. Most cant.

My entire college runs with BlackIce... figureing the number of idiots coming to college on Mommy and Daddies money and the random idiot download factor I give my school about 1 week... and that is just because this week is spring break.

I dont download free programs off kazaa and i dont use email, so i've never had a virus. I've never had virus protection either. The only thing people use this pc for is music and games and casual serfing (ummm, porn) so worst case scenario is I would just have to reformat, and install the games again.

Belt *AND* suspenders:

1. Mac
2. Apple's integrated firewall.
3. Firewall in my ethernet router.

Virus-free since 1982 (when I bought my first home computer).
(though, on a few occasions, I've had windows boxes at work infected).

Pretty much anything that could get through either firewall, probably has either a .doc or .exe extension, and thus gets kicked to the curb by OS X.

Windows Users: <- Ha ha suckers - lusers.
(Use Windows at work. Basically, the last 10 years of my career has been helping people overcome the shortcomings of Windows).

WombatControl
Oops.

Just sayin. I run Debian on 4 different architectures so I'm certainly not bashing it :-)

jpe_dty thanks for the free advice to bobbette, it helped me too!

jafac, dude, if you can't handle operating windows without getting a virus, you deserve that superexpensive/cant run a whole darn lot Macintosh.

I use macs a lot, they are quite powerful, but they can't begin to compete with a windows box.

300$ and I have a 2400 megahertz machine compatible with every single great program ever

not to mention seperate operating systems. Though linux is not yet enough for the end user.

windows is just too easy to run right. just becuase most problems are on windows doesnt mean anything. windows is the best operating system for diverse apps. obviously most people use it so most idiots use it.

...when i set up Windows boxen for my friends... i get hit by blaster in a guarenteed 45 seconds or less...

Interesting. I don't seem to have that problem, myself. Of course, I keep the RPC patch (and SP4, if I don't have a slipstreamed CD) close at hand and don't hook the computer into the network until the patch is installed.

But I'm sure you know what you're doing better than I do; after all, you're an 31337 1!nuck$ u$3r.

Arcanum

jafac, dude, if you can't handle operating windows without getting a virus, you deserve that superexpensive/cant run a whole darn lot Macintosh.

OS X has a base in FreeBSD, and is mostly POSIX compliant, meaning with little to no tweaking, programs for linux/BSD will compile on OS X

Victoly

But I'm sure you know what you're doing better than I do; after all, you're an 31337 1!nuck$ u$3r.

Gah, i hate leet speak, its horribly hard to read. And im not at all that good... ive only been using it for a year, and i use it not to be cool, but because programs run faster (theyre compiled for my machine, not genericly made to work everywhere) and its secure, and with every kernel release gets more so. And KDE is eye candy, the plastik default in KDE 3.2 is second best UI in my opinion, OS X is still lightyears ahead tho. And i used a whole bunch of ands... god that looks stupid... wont edit tho.

65.37.39.85
Anyone up for a challenge?

/getting a new ipa tomarrow anyway, have fun.

paradroid: I don't understand why Apple isn't jumping on the virus issue as a way of telling people to Switch.

If you listen to any tech programs or read technology articles, you'll notice that significant segment of the crowd is either noticeably anti-Apple or has no clue about Macs (sounding like most of their experience comes from the mid-90s, aka Apple's "dark period.") It's not new, but it amazes me that it persists given the massive strides Apple has made in the last few years. If Apple were to start boasting about the fact that there are no known OS X viruses currently, that crowd (most of whom probably have sizable investments in MS and its products) would take Apple down a few notches faster than you can imagine.

Not only that, but just wait until the day comes when an OS X virus does emerge (technically, it's possible, although it's far, far more difficult to do on OS X than on Windows.) Once that happens, Apple will look like shmucks for bragging about this issue and a whole host of anti-Mac writers and radio jack-offs will blather on and on with their holier-than-thou-told-ya-so routine. IMO, it would do more harm than good. The word will get out that OS X is inherently more secure than Windows. I imagine Apple knows that and will let it happen on its own.

In a sense, MS's own apparent indifference to the issue will do Apple more good than any boasting on their own part.

gas giant

Thought you would post the ip for the pentagon or something just to get someones ass in trouble, but the IP checks out to a Electric Lightwave Inc ADSL line in Rochester, so you may get some nibbles :) im not good enough to crack a box tho, but you may be getting more then you want from someone

I can't imagine this is a coincidence but last night around this time I found my WinXP sending packets at 1MB/s, apparently responding to thousands of ICMP packets directed at my system per minute. This flood corresponded to the execution of blackd.exe (though it had already been running.) I have no idea what happended, have only been testing blackice and until now I assumed a buffer overflow exploit remotely activated blackd.exe and caused it to act promisuously (mabye by running by executing an illicit ini script) and listen for and respond to all network traffic, even it wasn't directed to me. Either that or my IP was being spoofed in some DOS attack. I still have no idea what happened and while it happended twice last night, the second time under my supervision, it hasn't happended again.