Cramsession Linux Newsletter

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Jul 19 2001

                    LINUX NEWS
        RESOURCES & LINKS FROM BRAINBUZZ.COM
              Thursday, July 19, 2001
    Read By Over 6,000 Linux Enthusiasts Weekly!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1) Sean’s Notes

2) Linux News

Linux Clusters Grow Business
Guardian Digital EnGarde Secure Linux
DocBook Publishing
Slackware 8 Review

3) Linux Resources

IDE Resources
Maximum RPM
Linux+ Cramsession Released
Shell Scripting Tutorial
Internet Sharing

4) App o’ the week

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1) Sean’s Notes

A couple weeks ago I reported on Adobe’s lawyers threatening action against the author of KIllustrator for trademark violation. The Register reports that this was done without the consent or knowledge of Adobe, and that it’s all part of an interesting German copyright law. He’s since changed the name, and all seems well in that respect.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20431.html

However, Adobe’s not off the hook. A Russian programmer who exposed serious flaws in the PDF encryption scheme was arrested for DMCA violations after the Feds were tipped off by Adobe. He was in Las Vegas giving a presentation at the Black Hat conference.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-crime/2001/jul/18/5120 96646.html http://cryptome.org/usa-v-sklyarov.htm http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010717/ts/tech_hacker_arrest_dc_1 .html

In a nutshell, DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is a law in the USA that says that it is illegal to write software that circumvents copyright controls. Adobe’s product is used to protect documents from being copied. Easy enough? Not quite.

Most of the plugins that provide the PDF encryption are third-party, so anybody could theoretically copy them. One of the companies using this decided to encrypt the data with ROT-13 – ‘A’ becomes ‘N’, ‘B’ becomes ‘O’, and so on. That’s some pretty serious stuff there! The mechanism that is used to employ these plugins is not much better, so this software was able to get through pretty much any protection.

Furthermore, the software this guy wrote is sold for $99, far above the $20-$30 that the files go for. You also need to be the legitimate copyright holder (ie. you need the password or key in the first place).

Now, there is nothing wrong with owning a copyright, and making money off it. (This is where the whole Linux angle is coming in) Why develop secure systems in private? The open nature of Linux development means that more eyes will be on your code.

How many eyes are on your operating system? How about that web server that protects your business transactions? That cryptography that protects your email – it’s good, right?

Perhaps what irks me more about the development of secure systems in private are vendors getting governments to legislate it. If someone wants to advertise a false sense of security, I’d like to know people are out there trying to prove it, right or wrong.

Who knows if DMCA will hold up in court. If it does, it has serious implications for the Internet community. Linux users have an interest in all of this, as it goes against the whole development model that has brought us to where we are.

Long live the Penguin,

Sean mailto:swalberg@brainbuzz.com

Visit the Linux News Board at http://boards.brainbuzz.com/boards/vbt.asp?b2

2) Linux News

Linux Clusters Grow Business

In days of old, it was big names like Cray and SGI that built the huge machines. Want to simulate a nuclear explosion? You’ll need one big machine! These days, big machines can be built of many smaller and cheaper machines. Lots of companies are building their business out of this, as this article discusses.

http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid/07/18/188256&mode=thread

Guardian Digital EnGarde Secure Linux

The name of this distribution is quite the mouthful. You may recognize this from linuxsecurity.com, since the maintainers of the site are the developers of EnGarde. This review covers the installation process, and the features that this distribution brings to the table. It boasts a nice web interface, and easy installation. Well worth a look.

http://www.thedukeofurl.org/reviews/misc/engarde101/

DocBook Publishing

DocBook is a set of standards that allow you to write text in an SGML/XML fashion, and have them render it in HTML, PDF, PS, or any number of formats. It’s useful if you’re writing a book, or academic papers. This book from the folks at Prima Press is all about DocBook, and how to use it to your advantage.

http://itresources.brainbuzz.com/tutorials/tutorial.asp?t=S1TU1354

Slackware 8 Review

Before I started using RedHat, I was a huge slackware fanatic. The distribution has come a long way, including some turmoil when the parent company dropped the product. Not letting that stop it, the slackware team has released 8.0.

http://www.maximumlinux.org/article.php?story 010716225904639

3) Linux Resources

IDE Resources

Understanding the system underneath the OS is almost as important as understanding the OS itself. A knowledge of the relevant standards also helps you squeak out more performance, and to choose hardware more wisely. This site is all about IDE drives, how they work, and which ones to choose.

http://www.mkdata.dk/click/module5b1.htm

Maximum RPM

Not only is this site the place to grab the latest version of the RedHat Package Manager, but it is home to an excellent (free) book called “Maximum RPM”. This book has everything you’d ever want on using RPM, including how to make your own packages.

http://www.rpm.org

Linux+ Cramsession Released

Brainbuzz brings you the Cramsession for the upcoming Linux+ exam from Comp Tia. Topics covered include Planning, Installing Configuring, Maintaining, and Troubleshooting a Linux system.

http://cramsession.brainbuzz.com/cramsession/comptia/linux/

Shell Scripting Tutorial

Shell scripting is one of the more important skills a Unix user can have. This guide is a complete tutorial to the world of shell scripting.

http://www.freeos.com/guides/lsst/

Internet Sharing

Brainbuzz user Guitarlynn has a knack for explaining things. In this article, she explains some of the finer points of getting multiple computers shared through one Linux box using a package called PMFirewall. There are also some helpful hints for dialup users.

http://www.geocities.com/guitarlynn/isc.html

4) App o’ the week

Forgot the password to that pesky zipfile? Co-worker left without letting you know? Zipcracker is a program that will brute force that password. It has PVM support, so it will run under a Beowulf cluster (just in case you have one hanging around), and even has a version for WIN32.

http://zipcracker.sourceforge.net/

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