full-disclosure - Re: "Fire and forget" exploits?

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Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:43:43 +0200
From: Marcus Meissner <meissner@...e.de>
To: Bruce Ediger <eballen1@...st.net>
Cc: full-disclosure <full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk>
Subject: Re: "Fire and forget" exploits?

On Fri, Oct 20, 2006 at 10:09:13AM -0600, Bruce Ediger wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Oct 2006, Brendan Dolan-Gavitt wrote:
> 
> >  It seems like this kind of exploit is dying out, particularly as
> > different flavors of Linux proliferate, each with their own slightly
> > different libc and userland; in the Windows world, however, we still
> > find "universal" exploits that work on NT4/2k/XP over a variety of
> > service packs.
> 
> Doesn't this implicitly support Dan Geer et al's argument about
> software monoculture?
> 
> In fact, wouldn't the "linux monoculture" concept constitute a bit
> of a misnomer?  Each "slightly different" userland and libc would constitute
> a different flavor, right?
> 
> Nevertheless, the received wisdom remains that "If linux took over from
> Windows tomorrow, all the hackers would concentrate on linux flaws, and
> we'd be in the same position."

You are also forgetting ASLR as it is getting deployed in most new 
Linux systems. This reduces the mono culture aspect.

(Windows is catching up here too.)

Ciao, Marcus

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