OS 9 is very secure! It is not immune from compromising software
infections, but they are extremely rare.
My experience at using and protecting networked computers is long and
varied. At home, I run multiple Windows boxes, OS 9 with Norton and bare
OS 9 as well, OS X boxes and an occasional Linux box. My main email
machine is a beige G3 on OS 9 with Eudora because it just plain works and
is not a security risk as compared with the other alternatives. I run a
real hardware firewall (Sonicwall TZ 170), syslog, and frequently run
packetsniffers on my networks. If something bad was happening on my
network, I'd know it. As far as I can tell, nobody in Russia knows
anything about my OS 9 boxes. We won't talk about my Windows boxes, they
are the reason I run all the other crap so I know what is happening.
In my previous life (back when OS 9 was hot) I spent 7 years as a professor
of computer science and managed 4 networked labs of PCs and Macs ( 110
boxes total) in addition to teaching programming and network
administration. Pre OS X Macs have always been very reliable and almost
immune to internet attack. I have never seen an OS 9 box get busted from
an internet attack. I have seen machines compromised, but it was a local
attack which required someone to have physical access to machine.
If you care to (pointlessly) argue with your friends you might use these
points. Compromising a host requires four things.
1) An means of establishing a connection to the computer.
2) A means of taking control of a connected process.
3) A means of executing the program code to permanently infect the
target.
4) A means of communicating back out after compromise.
OS 9 and earlier make items 1-3 much more difficult than alternative
operating systems. You must have launched software to listen to a TCP port
on a Mac to open the door to connection. You can do this by double
clicking or adding aliases to the Startup Items, control panels or
extensions. Because OS 9 (unlike OS X and Windows) lacks a command line
interface, this is almost impossible to do this remotely in "normal"
configurations. That is, they have little way of starting a ftp server to
upload the infection. Assuming someone accomplishes items 1 and 2 above,
the lack of a command line interface again makes is almost impossible to
accomplish item 3 above. If someone does get control of your machine, that
control is likely to disappear with the next reboot.
Windows, Linux and OS X all present number of open ports by default. Each
of these is subject to exploitation. They also have a command line
available to execute other files which have been loaded onto you
machine OSX and Linux at least offer better implementation of execution
privileges so you must at least give permission to run a rogue program by
entering an admin password. Windows on the other hand has a command line
and frequently default administrator privileges. The combination makes
Windows inherently more difficult to protect.
Application level attacks through plugins etc are possible but I have not
seen them in the wild.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone has different experiences or opinions.
Rich Bright
At 04:34 PM 6/26/2005, you wrote:
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Reply-To: "PCI PowerMacs" <[email protected]>
> Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2005 19:35:49 -0400
> To: "PCI PowerMacs" <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [PCI] OS 9 Security ?
>
>> A group of PC users has kindly( ? ) told me that I would be appalled
>> if I saw all of the Trojan Horses and Worms working in the
>> background within my
>> OS 9.1 system and greedily taking all of my personal info back to
>> their masters for nefarious purposes.
And just what the heck do PC users know about Macs? They could just be
pulling your leg, you know.
Don't you have any utility programs (like Norton, or some other brand) that
monitors what goes on in your computer & lets you know if you have such
things as Trojans or worms) ? Yes, they do exist & some can infect Macs, but
I think more "info" is transferred by "cookies" on a Mac than any likely
infections of the above. If you don't have any virus protection program,
check out what is available & get one. The newer ones will not only alert
you, but many will stop them even getting to your hard drive. They also have
many new features besides the usual "virus" protection
I have the OS 9.1 on this particular computer & have never had a problem!
NEVER!
Ginny
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