El sÃb, 07-05-2005 a las 19:31 +0000, netnut6@comcast.net escribiÃ:
Hello,
I was wondering how a software based firewall(mcafee, Norton etc) can help
protect your machine if the operating system(Windows XP) is vulnerable?
Also how is a software based firewall any better then hardware. The way I
see it if you have a software based firewall and the operating system has
security issues I doubt very much a software firewall will protect that
machine.whereas if it's a hardware based firewall and the operating system
has vulnerabilities the chances of it being attacked are slim since they
would have to first find some vulnerability with the hardware firewall then
go after the operating system(firewall default settings with all ports
closed). Obviously if a port is open and that application has a
vulnerability then it would get attacked. Please let me know if I'm on the
right track here.
I think they are totally different things. Software based windows
firewalls like Mcafee, Norton or Sygate Personal Firewall just control
wich applications can make connections to the Internet. Hardware based
firewall control the connections made and the traffic between the
connections. They allow you to do many more tricks to control the
traffic than the software firewalls.
My personal choice is having both. A good hardware (or something
like Checkpoint or a good Linux/FreeBSD firewall) as a perimeter
firewall and then a software firewall on each machine, just to block
earlier the Spyware or Malware that always gets into the Windows
machines.
Thank you..
Regards.
--
Jose Maria Lopez Hernandez
Director Tecnico de bgSEC
jkerouac@bgsec.com
bgSEC Seguridad y Consultoria de Sistemas
http://www.bgsec.com
ESPAÃA
The only people for me are the mad ones -- the ones who are mad to live,
mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time,
the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn
like fabulous yellow Roman candles.
-- Jack Kerouac, "On the Road"
