is open source more secure ? Post: 302331403

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Special Forums Cybersecurity is open source more secure ? Post 302331403 by bakunin on Monday 6th of July 2009 05:41:14 AM

07-06-2009

Registered User

I agree with Neo. I'd like to split the matter into two distinct parts, a theoretical and a practical one.

Even theoretically-only spoken the matter of closed-source versus open-source remains complicated. A possible advantage of open-source is the peer-review process which can take place. But to capitalize on this advantage this process has to take place at all, which is in no way guaranteed by something being open-source at all.

A possible advantage of closed-source software would be the "security by obscurity" approach. Experience suggests that this is not a (lasting) security measure at all and in the case of compromised security there is a single possible source able to provide corrective services, whereas open-source software could be changed by everybody in theory, which still leaves a lot of possible authors of corrections in practice.

Approaching the problem on a practical level it has to be stated that "security" is - like "performance" for that matter - a relative term and cannot be used absolutely. There is some value of x you want to protect and there is some estimated effort of y needed to overcome your security measures. If x is (much) bigger than y you have a security problem, otherwise you haven't.

To appraise your security status simply put yourself into the place of the intruder: will it possibly pay off to overcome your defenses? Act, if the answer is "yes" or near there, otherwise don't bother.

It is similar to what i have countlessly told executives in meetings regarding "performance": you have some demand, which can be measured (in seconds, transactions completed, kilobytes, whatever) and there is a system having to meet the demand. It comes down to "does the system meet the specified demand - yes/no?" Performance is not being "fast" but "fast enough".

The same is true for security: what you protect and the efforts for protecting it have to be in proportion and the question is not "safe" but "safe enough".

bakunin

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LEARN ABOUT SUNOS

delete-connector-security-map

asadmin-delete-connector-security-map(1)			   User Commands			  asadmin-delete-connector-security-map(1)

NAME

       asadmin-delete-connector-security-map,  delete-connector-security-map  -  deletesthe  named security map for the given connector connection
       pool

SYNOPSIS

       delete-connector-security-map --user admin_user [--password admin_password] [--host localhost] [--port 4848] [--secure|-s]  [--passwordfile
       filename] [--terse=false] [--echo=false] [--interactive=true] --poolname connector_connection_pool_name mapname

       Deletes the named security map for the given connector connection pool.	This command is supported in remote mode only.

OPTIONS

       --user		       authorized domain application server administrative username.

       --password	       password to administer the domain application server.

       --host		       machine name where the domain application server is running.

       --port		       port number of the domain application server listening for administration requests.

       --secure 	       if true, uses SSL/TLS to communicate with the domain application server.

       --passwordfile	       file containing the domain application server password.

       --terse		       indicates that any output data must be very concise, typically avoiding human-friendly sentences and favoring well-
			       formatted data for consumption by a script. Default is false.

       --echo		       setting to true will echo the command line statement on the standard output. Default is false.

       --interactive	       if set to true (default), only the required password options are prompted.

       --poolname	       connector connection pool name for which the security map that is to be deleted belongs to.

OPERANDS

       mapname		       name of the security map to be deleted.

       Example 1: Using delete-connector-security-map

       asadmin> delete-connector-security-map --user admin --password adminadmin
       --poolname connector-pool1 securityMap1
       Command delete-connector-security-map executed successfully

EXIT STATUS

       0		       command executed successfully

       1		       error in executing the command

       asadmin- create-connector-security-map(1AS), asadmin-list-connector-security-maps(1AS), asadmin-update-connector-security-map(1AS)

J2EE 1.4 SDK							    March 2004				  asadmin-delete-connector-security-map(1)