On Thursday 17 February 2005 11:15 am, Temlakos wrote: > Those non-work-related pictures you mentioned, if they are showing up on > the screensaver, must be in a directory that the screensaver is > configured to point to for screenshots. The XScreenSaver system always > reserves a source for pictures that some screen saver routines work on. > This can be a shot of the current screen, or one particular graphic, or > a randomly-picked graphic in a directory of graphics or symbolic links > to graphics. > > To get rid of the inappropriate pictures, you need to find out where > they are stored. Bring up your Screensaver Preferences dialog > (Preferences->Screensaver if you're using GNOME) and go to the Advanced > tab. You will see a static box labeled "Image Manipulation." I would > guess that you have a box checked that reads "Choose Random Image:" with > a field below it naming a directory. That directory is where those files > are stored. First, eliminate the directory from that Image Manipulation > setting--get it to grab desktop images only for the time being. Second, > go to the directory that was named and throw everything in it into the > trash. And if it's symbolic links, you'll need to track them down and > throw them away. (Trust me: you do /not/ want pictures such as you > described on a work computer! That's a sexual-harassment lawsuit waiting > to happen.) > > If that is not what you find, then someone has indeed installed a > different screensaver on your system, or else a slideshow viewer > pointing to a folder containing the inappropriate graphics. This is why > I never do updates as root--I always give the superuser password to an > application I know and trust which requests it, and I do all my business > while logged in as any user /but/ root. > > Now as to how to keep the barn door locked: My first impression is that > you need to enable the system firewall, even if you /do/ have a > corporate firewall. Redundancy never hurts in security. Of course, you > need to make sure you know what TCP and UDP ports have to be open for > certain network processes to run. As long as you open those ports (as > source /and/ as destination, to be safe) and restrict this to the > subnetwork you have in your enterprise, your computer should be safe > even if someone compromises the corporate firewall--or is making > mischief inside the enterprise and hence already inside the firewall. > Search on the word "iptables" for more information. (The iptables system > and syntax took a long time for me to learn, until now I have a system > that is /very/ particular about what transactions it allows, even > between computers on my own network.) > > Temlakos > > Pat Pleate wrote: > > Sorry about the last entry - I hit Enter too quickly. > > I just installed FC3 a couple of days ago. We have a > > corporate firewall between our company and the > > "outside world", so I left my the PC on but logged off > > for the night. I logged in as my own account this > > morning (which may be root equivalent, but I don't > > know yet, I'm learning) and ran today's updates > > (Thurs. 2/17). About 5 - 10 minutes later during the > > time the updates were downloading/installing, I turned > > around from my other workstation checking e-mail and > > noticed that the FC3 screensaver was not legit - the > > pictures were not work-related, i.e. nude women. I > > suspect that my PC may have been broken into. I > > looked at all the screensaver pics and didn't find any > > nude women photo shots. I'm very suspicious of this > > and would like some assistance from the experts. What > > should I be checking for in the Linux world that would > > be suspicious? I can easily find my way through > > Novell and Windows, but don't have much background in > > the Linux world and am humbly asking for your > > assistance. Thanks in advance and have great day. > > > > > > > > __________________________________ > > Do you Yahoo!? > > Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. > > http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo Hi All, great post Temlakos. People like you and others here make this place great to visit. Security and fallbacks for it are important Cheers. Mark Sargent.
