Hello List,

Chandra and i had a disscusion how to handle linux tests. The problem is, that 
most linux distros provides patches for vulnerabilities which not change the 
version of the fixed program. So local security checks are not useful in that 
case.  For example cups package on Suse linux 10.3 which is version 
1.2.12-22.17 . Last Security announcement for cups says that every version 
below 1.3.9 is vulnerable. But this Suse Version is a patched non vulnerable 
version. So checking for Version < 1.3.9 will give a false positive. I think 
it is nessesary to check which distro is used and the script then have to 
check for distro specific version numbers like the securityspace debian 
scripts are doing.
Chandra has made the following proposals.

=== Schnipp ===
Hello Carsten,

This is one of the issue with Linux based scripts. I raised this in IRC, no
response came. 

The issue is, 

1. As you have pointed, most of the Linux distros have their own packages
and versions and updates are released much later than vulnerabilities are
disclosed to the public. 

2. There are tar package installations (some might prefer downloading and
installing on their own) that are actual package versions. To these, most of
the time, as soon as vulnerabilities are disclosed to the public, patch is
made available. 

In my view, both these have to be verified. The way to go about it would be,

Option 1:
1. Release the plugin assuming the public release version (not distros
package version).

2. When updated packages are made available by each vendor, develop local
checks (automated checks) and add a check in #1 to see which Linux distro it
is and based on that, either,
 a) exit() if the local check is available. If not, proceed with 
    checking. 
or
 b) Launch the local check for the specific distro by adding that as a 
    dependency

Option 2:
1. Maintain a backport version of each package for each Linux distribution
in an inc. 
2. Check for the backported version based on the Linux distribution
3. Towards the end of the plugin, we can check for manually installed
original version. 

Option #2 would be ideal to do, but requires good amount of work initially
to capture versions for each package and keep that up to date every time an
update is released.

Please let me know your views. 

Thanks,
Chandra.

=== Schnapp ===

Please let us know your views. 

-- 
Gruss
    Carsten Koch-Mauthe
    
 http://www.dn-systems.de  mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 DN-Systems Enterprise Internet Solutions GmbH
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