On Wednesday 17 October 2007, Karl Larsen wrote: > I am pleased your many computers were not effected by the selinux > update. I have no idea what is special about my computer but it is and > I, just an old EE am not capable of figuring out what it is so I can run > selinux. A sure fix EVERY time is to turn off selinux, relabel selinux > and forget selinux. I am wondering why I have to relabel the stupid thing. Karl, as an EE you certainly ARE capable of figuring it out (getting an EE is a hard thing; I know, got one myself). It will take some digging; but anything worth knowing is worth digging for, and the engineering background is perfect for this task. If you have decided you just don't want (or if you don't have time) to figure it out, that's a different thing altogether. But I have no doubts that you have the ability if you apply that ability. Karl, you should really think hard about reinstalling your system from scratch. You've had a root-level system compromise; this hour delay you're experiencing could be a result of this compromise; something could be triggered by specific updates, and it not be the updates themselves causing the problem. Maybe someone is intentionally messing with you and has a backdoor set up that you can't detect and is laughing at the situation even now (and, who knows, might even be someone on this list). If a backdoor is open it doesn't matter whether you've disabled ssh or not. Might even be someone with a bone to pick about SELinux; I know I'm speculating here, but it IS possible. Think of a root-level compromise as being the computer equivalent to radio equipment experiencing a lightning strike; even when you think you have it fixed, you will miss something, or components will fail later. Equipment that isn't too expensive that has failed due to a lightning strike needs replacement; sometimes repair is not an option (I saw a $12,000 broadcast audio console junked due to lightning; the repair bill was going to be at least 3/4's the new retail price, and the manufacturer wasn't willing to warranty the repair; the console's backplane itself had vaporized PC traces). A new F7 install with all updates will likely behave in a different way than what you are seeing. I've tried to duplicate your problem with an F7 machine here; I wasn't able to do so. But if you have decided to not determine the root cause of the issue, then just simply run with SELinux disabled. Your machine was already compromised, and it could still have a backdoor installed; only a thorough audit or a reinstall will remove that possibility. The level of difficultly of an audit that is thorough enough is very high; a reinstall is a much easier thing to do. -- Lamar Owen, KF4MYT Chief Information Officer Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute 1 PARI Drive Rosman, NC 28772 (828)862-5554 www.pari.edu
