UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Hi all,

I'm quite new with installation of security patches in Linux Redhat Enterprise, here's my question.

I have 2 machine of this RHEL(never patch before) since it never connects directly to the internet(block by firewall) and I want to update the patches now because my boss asked me to update it due to security reason which I have no clue why should I do that since that machine is not connected to internet than why should I patch it.. , but anyway I have found the security patches from redhat as per below:

Code:

  http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/rhel4-extras-errata-security.html

I know that 'rpm -qa' will list the packages that have installed while ‘up2date -l' will list the updates available to install. but do I really need to install all of those patches or which security patches that is not important or can bring some error to my server? please shed some light on, I am really newbie.

Thank You.

A malicious local user could mount those attacks just as well. Security updates are made as minimal as possible in order to remove as many upgrade barriers as possible, but you should probably scan through the upgrade notes before committing. If you don't have Java or Flash installed then obviously those packages will not need to be upgraded, so it might be a smaller project than it seems at first.