Hello All,
When my Windows system crashed recently, a patient of mine introduced me to Linux as a secure OS but today I read an article on fork bombing a Linux system.
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/308?ref=rssdebia
As a non-geek user I am concerned as I thought Linux is very secure. So I googled "fork bombing" and after reading them, I have some doubts :
1] Is this applicable to newer version of FC3/4 or will this affect older stable versions too. 2] The article mentions Debian survived among others but some of the Linux distributions are vulnerable to fork bombing. Is FC a part of the latter ? 3] If a non -root 'user' can bring down the system, then can a person without login facility bring down the system too if the machine is connected to the Internet ?. 4] What precautions must one take for [a] general PC [b] servers. do they differ ? 5] Does one have to download a patch for the kernel ? If we install an older stable version of the distro will the system be safe from such an attack ?
All comments and pointers to online resources are welcome.
Thanks for reading.
Go look at the file /etc/security/limits.conf
There are already scripts in place to handle this and allow configuration of the necessary limits.
