Omer Zak wrote:
> Why are you unifying all the Linux servers in one distribution?
> Won't this expose your organization's computers to the dangers of
> monoculture?
>   
I cannot talk for Amos, but here is my experience. The dangers of
monoculture mostly apply when you have a group from which you want the
maximal survival (or minimal damage). A heterogeneous environment is the
best way to achieve this, as the minimal number of item will be
vulnerable to any specific attack.

A single company, often, is not like that. In a single company the
danger is often equally placed for ANY item failing. In other words, you
are not trying to improve the average, you are trying to improve the
worst case. It's a different problem and it has different optimization
points.

As far as the practical side goes, there is another consideration. Even
with the first case, an environment of poorly maintained individuals, be
them as heterogeneous as they might, is still more vulnerable than an
environment of well maintained but uniform individuals. This is under
the assumption that most attacks are based on vulnerabilities that have
vendor patches at the time of the attack, and that all platforms are
attacked to some extent.
> Won't it be a good idea to deploy different distributions/OSes on
> computers through which crackers will have to break in order to break
> into the organization's computers?
>   
I think you are assuming two things:
1. It is possible to set up the environment so that the attacker has to
break into ALL systems in order to gain access.
2. It makes economical sense to invest the extra time to set up and
maintain such a system.

I think 1 is remotely possible, but 2 is extremely unlikely.
>                                          --- Omer
>   

Shachar

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