Security Through Obscurity

Posted Aug 26, 2005 16:31 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
In reply to: Security Through Obscurity by Felix.Braun
Parent article: The worm that didn't turn up (Guardian)

The advantage that Linux does have (don't know about MacOS) is that the underlying system architecture has been designed with security in mind,

I know it's an open question why worms are less of a problem for Linux, but I think I have to rule out security-conscious design. It can't be that because it doesn't matter how many security holes there are; one is enough. And Linux does occasionally have them. We read in LWN all the time about Linux bugs that allow someone to take over virtually everybody's Linux system, but it never happens.

Another theory of Linux's superiority is that Linux users are more likely than Windows users to apply the fixes before someone can exploit them. One fact in support of that is that, regardless of how many security flaws there are in Windows, nearly all Windows worm infections wouldn't happen if all the Windows systems were up to date (i.e. the fix was available before the infection). That makes it look like a problem of applying fixes, not of existence of bugs that need to be fixed.