Hello All,

First of all, let me thank all of you who have contributed your time and effort into this project. Personally, I am one of the few who must say that this is worth all the sweat and hours. I would like to thank everyone who contributed for providing the public with a beautiful method to bring Linux onto the top of the ladder. You deserve more than this little paragraph, thank you.

Now, I must be frank with you and I will be. I am a beginner at Linux, in terms of that compared to my knowledge with DOS/Windows, I practically know very little about Linux. Yes, ofcourse I know the basic commands and how to get around, I have successfully used RedHat/Mandrake/Slackware before, but because of some hardware incompabilities (and other issues), I did not ever keep my eyes on any of the Linux distributions for too long.

Knoppix has changed that, and I thank you. Once booted into the system, I was very surprized with the ease it found most of my 'incompatible' hardware, the wide variety of software it presented (although I'm pretty sure, alot of packages could be removed, alot could be added), and altogether the idea of having a Live-CD Linux running gave me an intellectual orgasm

Nevertheless, to cut the chase, I am very concerned with the security issue of Knoppix. I am well aware that Linux outperforms Windows platform, but the fact that I am not familiar with the whole system (just yet) gives me the feeling of unease while I am physically connected to the net (yes, it is called physical, wires still are physical).

Take a look at this thread :

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2234

It offered basic opinions on the 'security' of Knoppix. Very well, but I hope you dont mind if I be the first to ask a few more questions and clarify some information myself.

Knoppix Security :

1) Linux itself is somewhat a better security 'tool' than Windows, but most of the times, thats the case if one knows their facts and maintains the operating system.

2) Knoppix has a very big advantage, its booted off a CD (it cant do Live writing onto the CD), and loads itself into the memory (reboot, and everything unsaved is gone, literally)

3) Knoppix (hopefully) is pre-installed with updated software patches, fixes and packs as a whole. It includes (hopefully) the most secure configurations available.

Now, onto a few (or not) of my questions.

1) Compared to other distributions/setups/configurations, the default Knoppix (3.2 at this time), is it secure in terms of that its patched, and config'ed to run without any major hassles, protecting the machine against beginner and intermediate attacks / hacker attempts from the net ?

2) Although Knoppix is a Live-CD, if one has a Hard Drive connected and mounted, whoever gains access to the system can ultimately access the Hard Drive to and perform malicious tasks which can result in damage of the files.
Specific question : NTFS is the Standard format system for some of the Windows platforms, and although it is recognized for reading by Linux, the writing algorithms/code is very shaky, thus is not enabled by default. If one (such as myself) has NTFS drives mounted (for data access) in Knoppix, is there a less of a chance of an intruder to break into the HD and attempt to destroy data, since NTFS is 'read-only' ? What are the tools that allow Knoppix to write data in NTFS format and can they be disabled ? Any other suggestions ?

3) I have various tools running on my Windows platform. Now, surely the first thing to do is to set up a firewall on Linux. Can anyone direct me to the most beginner / quickest way for me to setup a basic firewall until the time I can read up and do a detailed configuration ? I have attempted to lookup information on this, and found two packages that were a bit advanced for me, thus I came here.

4) Generally, please present your worst security concerns with Knoppix and Linux. Please refrain from overstatements such as that any working box is vulnerable, for this is a given fact. Lets keep it to the level of the vulnerability and not whether it is or not. Also, please explain what issues are there with Knoppix separately from other Linuxes, with Linux as a whole. Feel free to get as technical as you can, but without any specific details (such as a denial of service of some irrelevant protocol)

Thank you very much for the attention. I hope that everyone can input in this, for this thread might be read by many newcomers, since Linux these days literally stands for 'security, stability (and hopefully later) comfort (?)'. Please refrain from useless posts. I apologize for any misunderstandings, overstatements or improper use of language / terms. Please no flame but I am eager to read your detailed opinion and views on the subject.