In my experience it's simple. Generally speaking, not installing a
compiler makes the system less secure. Why? real easy. Most systems I
have ever seen without a compiler has software running on it that is
behind on it's updates. When you ask the system administrator why, it
is "Oh I don't have the compiler installed"
Not giving the system administrator the tools to install
security updates is a reciepe for a less secure system.
Meanwhile, and attacker, if they need something compiled,
can simply compile elsewhere and bring it in, or install the tool
once the box is owned.
-Bob
(Yes there are exceptions to this if you have some other sort of
update mechanism in place, blah blah blah. 90% of people don't,
because they run openbsd and "never need to patch it", but then run
"other" dubious stuff out of /usr/local/ and should be..)
