[Osiris]

We talk a lot about Windows and Apple vulnerabilities simply because they tend to be in the forefront of the news and the vast majority of readers are using those platforms. Now Debian and Ubuntu users can join in on the hand-wringing fun with this recent announcement about a “serious and scary” vulnerability in Debian and Ubuntu systems that can be exploited.

HD Moore, best known as the exploit researcher who created the Metasploit penetration testing framework, called the vulnerability in Debian and Ubuntu systems "ugly" and said it will be a big job for administrators to find every flawed key, then reissue them.

[H]ard|OCP - www.hardocp.com

[zmatt]

This really hurts my overall confidence in the Debian base. I am currently trying to decide which distro I should use in my next desktop refresh and SUSE is starting to look better than Ubuntu because of this.

[Mak213]

I have used Ubuntu since the get go. The odds of this actually happening to you are about as good as you winning the lottery. Plus now that he news hit. It will be patched quick. Ubuntu is one of the best communties out there and they get things patched as fast as they hit.

[zmatt]

Oh I'm sure they will, but I am a very security minded user. You could say I'm a bit paranoid, especially when it comes to the internet. And I don't like the idea of 16bit SSL. And ubuntu has historically had issues with my laptop anyways so yeah, right now I feel better with something not debian based. And I know its not really one person's fault or the whole community's fault, I'm just looking out for myself as a user.

[Mak213]

I can understand that as well. But i can say that Linux is still far more secure than Windows or OS X. Even with this "threat" out there people will not know you are running a Debian based OS. Plus after installign Kubuntu yesterday and having 58 updates, couple of which were for the kernel cause a restart was required. I am thinking they already addressed this.

Plus using a good router will protect you more than anything. I dont even run a firewall and i have not been hacked yet.

[zmatt]

This is true. After trying to work with several firewalls I just gave up and relied on my router.

[Mak213]

Easiest way to check for protection.

https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Go thru shields up. That will tell you if you have any open ports at all for someone to use to attack you in any way. If not then it just comes down to you being safe on the web.

I can understand the paranoia for security. I am close to the same way. I dont use my real name for pretty much everything. I think only 3 people know my real name on the web that i talk to. I dont have any family pics up. I have 1 pic of me up and that is inverted so it looks demonic.

So i truly understand you stance. I personally just think getting scared over something like this isnt worth it. Linux is by far the most secure OS since it is so hard to attack already and let alone try to get past all the security and take advantage of this flaw. Chances are better for us to wint hte powerball than for any of us to be exploited by this flaw.