Hi,
The below said points are valid in the case of Linux. There is no concept of
Registray in
the Linux. RPM has its own database. If one installs software through RPM
installer,
then one can obtain the package information about what is installed or what is
not
installed. If anybody downloads the source code of a software and compiles and
installs,
then no
way one can patch automatically. This argument is valid for all Linux
Distribution.
The one way to overcome these difficulties is in bringing of "Registray
concept", where
all the installed packages information is stored. We have tried to explore
this option
very seriously. It is very nascent stage. We have made some progress on this.
with regards
Dr. Manickam
NSS (www.mynetsec.com)
Miles Stevenson <miles@mstevenson.org> wrote:
Milind,
I don't see what your question has to do with pen-testing. Please try and
keep your questions relevant to the discussion topic of the list. This post
would be more appropriate for the security-basics list.
I'm not aware of a tool that can push package updates to all the different
linux distributions out there. You have to remember, some of these distro's
are RPM based such as SuSe and RedHat/Fedora, while some are source based,
such as Gentoo and Slackware. It is a good idea to treat each individual
linux distro as a seprate operating system. Just as you would differentiate
FreeBSD from RedHat, you should differentiate RedHat from SuSe. Each of these
systems have their own way of managing updates. You will be much better off
sticking to just a few different operating systems in your environment and
managing updates to them using tools that were meant for that OS.
Keeping your systems patched and up-to-date takes constant vigilance. There
is no magic tool that is going to solve all your problems here. Sorry.
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