Arch Linux

Learn!ng

Member

Registered: 2007-08-08

Posts: 3

archlinux?

After trying a few distros i am looking for is a secure basic distro to browse, do music, spreadsheets and burn cds. Hardened gentoo didn't convince me either... is archlinux secure enough?

FUBAR

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2004-12-08

Posts: 1,029

Website

Re: archlinux?

Depends on the system admin. It's probably one of the more secure distributions out of the box as you end up with a minimal system running no network services at all after the initial install. Where you take it from there is your own choice, and will also decide how secure your machine will be.

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A train station is where a train stops.
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Learn!ng

Member

Registered: 2007-08-08

Posts: 3

Re: archlinux?

thx for the reply...
would it be suitable to recommend as secure to say a member of the family without too much computing knowledge so that they don't have their accounts emptied within a week of the install?

or does it require tinkering with the kernel and port access personally?

mcmillan

Member

Registered: 2006-04-06

Posts: 737

Re: archlinux?

As FUBAR said it probably depends on how you decide to secure things, the base install won't really have anything set at all. I don't have a need for a lot of network tools on my system, so I just never installed them, and feel reasonably secure with as long as I'm running a firewall (I use firestarter). With this kind of setup another user would probably be pretty secure and not need to interact much at all. However it's not as hardened as some people may like.

btartsa

Member

Registered: 2004-07-26

Posts: 222

Re: archlinux?

There is a hardened kernel in the AUR called  kernel26grsecurity. I've never used it.  Run minimal services and use strong passwords and IMO you should be fine.

Learn!ng

Member

Registered: 2007-08-08

Posts: 3

Re: archlinux?

ok btartsa it seems like there may be an option to run arch and make it secure... i'll try that kernel out... just out of interest is there an application that enables direct port control with arch?

FUBAR

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2004-12-08

Posts: 1,029

Website

Re: archlinux?

You say your family members don't know a lot about computers. Why would they need a grsec-kernel and lots of security stuff in place?

Simply not giving them root access is probably more than enough. The biggest threats to users like that are viruses and malware and those are pretty rare on Linux.

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A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: archlinux?

there's a tonne of different applications which can be used to configure a firewall. Though you won't be needing grsec. If it's just a family computer, the standard kernel should be fine, grsec isnt worth the bother.

James

tmadhavan

Member

From: Wales :D

Registered: 2004-03-26

Posts: 441

Re: archlinux?

What do you mean by 'direct port control'?