Security UPDATE--Add VMware Player to Your Security Toolkit--October 26, 2005

This free tool lets you run existing VMs created by other VMware tools and Microsoft Virtual Server. Read about how you can put it to use--and get links to security news, articles, and other resources.

ITPro Today

October 25, 2005

12 Min Read
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==== 1. In Focus: Add VMware Player to Your Security Toolkit by Mark Joseph Edwards, News Editor, mark at ntsecurity / net VMware is a tool that lets you run various OSs as virtual machines (VMs) on a single computer. The Windows IT Pro Web site has many articles about VMware, which you can find listed at http://www.windowsitpro.com/search/index.cfm?Action=Search&sortby=date&qs=vmware I've been testing VMware Workstation lately, and last week I woke up to a pleasant surprise. While doing a little early morning blog surfing, I came across a blog I hadn't read before called Wubble. As it turns out, the blog author, Philip Langdale, works at VMware. In a blog entry, "VMs for Everyone!" (at the first URL below), I learned that during the VMworld 2005 conference in Las Vegas (Oct. 18-20), VMware released a new standalone tool, VMware Player (at the second URL below). If you've used VMware Workstation, the VMware servers, or VMware ACE (Assured Computing Environment), then you know how incredibly useful VMware is. The new Player (which will also ship with the upcoming VMware Workstation 5.5) is equally useful for two particular reasons. First, it lets you run existing VMs created by other VMware tools and supports VMs created with Microsoft Virtual Server as well as Symantec LiveState Recovery snapshots. Second, it's free. http://intr.overt.org/blog/?p=10 http://www.vmware.com/products/player As with many free tools, VMware Player has some limitations. For example, you can't create new VMs and you can't add new hardware to a VM. You can learn about other limitations in VMware's comparison chart. http://www.vmware.com/products/player/comparison.html Even with some limitations, VMware Player is a great offering. As you might suspect, you can use it to run Windows, Linux, Novell NetWare, Sun Microsystems Solaris, and FreeBSD as guest OSs. Another nice thing is that if you don't have a VM to run in VMware Player or don't want to create one, you can download one from VMware's Web site. Available are VMs for Novell Linux Desktop, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, plus several other VMs provided by various application vendors. VMware also provides a VM based on Ubuntu Linux that's configured as a Browser Appliance and designed to let you surf the Internet while protecting your underlying OS from malware. http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/ If you've run a honeypot or a honeymonkey or had to test various software and tools, you probably know (or can imagine) how using a VM can be of great benefit. For example, you can build your honeypot on any supported OS and run it inside a VM. Then if the honeypot is compromised, it's not a problem--just shut down the VM and restart it again, and any changes made by an intruder are gone. The same goes for running a honeymonkey or testing spyware and other forms of malware. Plus, you can run Linux-based security tools on a Windows desktop by loading them into a Linux-based VM. With VMware Player, you can extend your use to other systems quickly and easily--and that's what makes VMware Player a great addition for your security toolkit. Check it out.

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==== 2. Security News and Features ==== Recent Security Vulnerabilities If you subscribe to this newsletter, you also receive Security Alerts, which inform you about recently discovered security vulnerabilities. You can also find information about these discoveries at http://www.windowsitpro.com/departments/departmentid/752/752.html Exchange Server 2003 SP2 Improves Security Microsoft released Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), which includes a number of new features, including some security enhancements. Learn about the new features in a news story on our Web site (at the first URL below), in Paul Robichaux's article "Exchange Server 2003 SP2 Ships" (at the second URL below), and in Tony Redmond's article "Exploring Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2" (at the third URL below). http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/48146 http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/48185 http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/47792 Multiple Vulnerabilities in Oracle Products Multiple high-risk vulnerabilities exist in Oracle9i Database Server, Oracle Database Server 10g, and many other Oracle products. They consist of one buffer overflow condition and numerous possible SQL injection attacks, many of which could be exploited by an intruder to gain complete control of the products. Oracle released a Critical Patch Update (at the URL below) to correct many (but not all) of the problems. http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/pdf/cpuoct2005.html Buffer Overflow Vulnerability in Snort and Sourcefire Internet Security Systems (ISS) X-Force discovered a buffer overflow vulnerability in Snort, which according to ISS also affects Sourcefire--the commercial version of Snort. The vulnerability exists in the Back Orifice preprocessor; systems that don't use Back Orifice aren't affected. Snort 2.4.3 was released to correct the problem. For more details about the problem in Snort, read the announcement on the Snort.org Web site (first URL below) and ISS's advisory at the second URL below. At the time of this writing, no information was available about updates to Sourcefire. http://www.snort.org/pub-bin/snortnews.cgi#99 http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/alerts/id/207 Secure Your Wireless Network Along with the benefits of wireless networks comes a need to keep them secure. John Howie gives you a look at some practical steps you can take to secure your wireless networks, methods to automate configuration-setting deployment, and tools you can use to probe for unsecured and unauthorized wireless networks. http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/47860

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