local root ~= remote root

Posted Dec 1, 2003 7:39 UTC (Mon) by ken (subscriber, #625)
In reply to: local root ~= remote root by mikesalib
Parent article: Debian.org compromise update

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My desktop is a classic example; the only people who have access to this machine are myself and one or two trusted friends. A remote root hole can take my machine down or turn it into a worm or spam spreading zombie so I pay attention to those. But I rarely worry about local exploits because I don't plan on exploiting my own box anytime soon.
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You are very much mistaken here every bug is a potetial problem even for you.

Take a bug in some media codec for xmms. Now someone could infect your computer by making you play some mp3,ogg(whatever) file.

You must realise that any program that takes external data could be used to gain access to you computer it dose not have to be suid or a program litening to the network and once they got your account they hardly even need a local ecploit to gain root. A simple redirect on sudo or su would do it for most home computers.

Still a remote hole is a big problem as the rate of infection is so great something that a local exploit is not.