Re: kernel.org status: establishing a PGP web of trust

Rafael J. Wysocki
2011-10-04T19:20:53Z

On Tuesday, October 04, 2011, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 10/03/2011 09:49 PM, Ted Ts'o wrote:
> >
> > Note that if your laptop allows incoming ssh connections, and you
> > logged into master.kernel.org with ssh forwarding enabled, your laptop
> > may not be safe. So be very, very careful before you assume that your
> > laptop is safe. At least one kernel developer, after he got past the
> > belief, "surely I could have never had my machine be compromised",
> > looked carefully and found rootkits on his machines.
> >
> > - Ted
>
> By the way, I'm now pretty convinced that allowing inbound ssh on
> laptops (which is the default on all the mainline Linux distros as far
> as I know) is seriously broken... laptops get connected to *extremely*
> insecure networks on just way too regular a basis.

That's very true.

I'd recommend everyone to run a full nmap scan of his/her laptop
and to block everything it finds open before using it outside of the home
network.

Thanks,
Rafael