Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 3rd May 2006 20:28 UTC
X11, Window Managers An open-source security audit program funded by the US Department of Homeland Security has flagged a critical vulnerability in the X Window System which is used in Unix and Linux systems. Coverity, the San Franciso-based company managing the project under a $1.25 million grant, described the flaw as the "biggest security vulnerability" found in the X Window System code since 2000.
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twenex
Member since:
2006-04-21

'a "real" distribution' being what?

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kaiwai Member since:
2005-07-06

A 'real distibution' probably meaning, one that is properly maintained; one of the big ones like Fedora, OpenSuSE, Debian and so forth.

It pretty much falls down to this, the less visible the distribution, the less accountability there is, so there for, the maintaines are more likely to be lazy.

For example, a vulnerability is found in X Windows, such as this one, two distributions fail to provide a speedy update, ones called Fedora, the others called Peanut Linux - which one do you think will get the post amount of flack? of course, Fedora, so there fore, if you want a distribution that keeps up to date with the latest fixes and security patches, you're better off getting a mainstream, highly visible distribution rather than relying on one that has been cobbled together by a guy operating out of a toilet cubical in southern siberia.

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ma_d Member since:
2005-06-29

In this case, lazy developers would be fine as they'd still be on 6.8.x, which this vulnerability doesn't affect.

But that's a good point. The more used distributions are going to be more likely to get fixed quick.

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BryanFeeney Member since:
2005-07-06

Fedora is not a stable distribution, and is certainly not properly maintained. Maintenance cuts out after every new release, and new releases are made every nine months or so.. RedHat ES and WS are stable distributions. Fedora is just a testing ground.

OpenSUSE is more stable than Fedora, due to its lineage as a full, retail product, but in the long term I think SuSE Linux Enterpise Desktop (SLED) and Server (SLES) will be the truly stable distributions.

Debian, of course, is stable and well maintained.

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JMcCarthy Member since:
2005-08-12

Any one of the major ones actually designed for desktop use.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 1