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Old 04-18-2001, 01:11 PM   #1
prowzen
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Registered: Apr 2001
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Hi,
I have a stand alone RD 7.0 running on my machine connected to a cable modem and I get my internet connection thru an ISP. I have installed apache and all the packages that came with the RD7.0 package and I have all the services running on my machine.(Yeah I know..too greedy)
Is there a possibility that someone can hack into my system from the outside? Why Iam asking this is... I noticed my hard disk 'really busy' and I opened up the process viewer from KDE (sorry I don't know what it is called but it gave a list of running processes on my system) and I noticed an entry with the user name 'NOBODY'. I didn't wait to look for more details but immediately shut down my system...
Is this some legitimate application running a process with this user name('nobody') or did somebody really hack into my system?
Also cud you please explain to me/direct me to a site on some information about how one can get hacked(the possible ways) and how one can avoid it... I just use my computer at home and I am just looking for some basic precautions...nothing more
Thank you all in anticipation.

-prowzen-
 
Old 04-18-2001, 08:52 PM   #2
billsabub
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Prowzen,

You don't need to worry about "nobody". It's a "user" that the system requires to run certain processes. "nobody" has root permission to perform these tasks.

I run top on my system and have nobody running my identd process.

As far as security and hacking, there's tons of reading to do. Here's a start:

http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=756
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=903

As far as setting up a firewall on your home pc, do a search in the Security forums here at Linuxquestions as well as at http://www.linuxnewbie.org

If you're kernel is less than 2.4, search for ipchains. If it's 2.4.x, search for iptables.

For a good article on iptables, see:
http://www.computerbits.com/archive/.../linux0002.htm

Hope this gets you started in the right direction.
 
Old 04-18-2001, 11:29 PM   #3
prowzen
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Thanks Bill. That was really helpful.

prowzen
 
Old 04-19-2001, 05:27 AM   #4
trickykid
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This is kind of off subject but this is one of the latest articles off Newforge about Linux and viruses. Might be a good heads up. Here is the link: http://thebusiness.vnunet.com/News/1120613

Also, prowzen, unless you have some important data or your running a web server or anything else, and you use this machine as a regular personal use type thing, usually your not as vulnerable for a hack, maybe a virus but usually hackers know what they are after when they are hacking. Unless of course their in the learning process or something. But anyways, another point, if your on dialup, just think, each time you log of or back on...your IP changes, well, most of the time.
 
Old 04-19-2001, 10:19 AM   #5
prowzen
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Is it dificult for an amateur hacker to break into a system that has it's IP address generated dynamically?I agree with what you say. Pro crackers would rather prefer to crack sites that has some stakes for them unless of course they do it for just getting a kick out of it.
I read the article you had mentioned. I was of the opinion that viruse didn't exist on Linux. Unix systems claim that they are immune to virus attacks.(that was 5 years back when I used to work a little on unix before moving to MS windos).... This article is a good eye-opener for me.
 
  


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