Security issues in Apache will be found and reported before bugs get found
in IIS6.
Apache is open source which allows people to audit the source code easily.
IIS6 however, isn't open source and it's often more time-consuming to find
bugs. It's difficult to determine right now if IIS6 has more security
issues than Apache for that reason. It could have less; it could have more,
since it isn't open-source, only time will tell.
I personally notice Apache security patches/new releases are out quicker
than Microsoft's.
If I were to receive a security bulletin detailing a security issue in
Apache, I could go to the affected part and fix it and recompile. You can't
do that with IIS.
I would say that those are some of many reasons Apache have been the most
widespread http server since 1996
(http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html).
Sincerely,
Gary H Jones II
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rivera Alonso, David" <drivera@iberdrola.es>
To: <security-basics@securityfocus.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 9:52 AM
Subject: IIS6 Security and other web servers
Dear friends,
I just want to throw a little question to know your opinion.
I was discussing yesterday with a friend about the quality of IIS6 from a
Security point of view.
He immediately said it's a bad choice, as previous Microsoft web servers.
I've read a few papers and I have this opinion: as it's been redesigned
from
the ground (with all the previous failures in mind), with the security
perspective, with every little service and option disabled by default, and
so on, I told him that now, in my opinion, IIS6 is a good choice.
He loves GNU, Linux, and, logically, he thinks Apache is the king in
security.
Just because I felt curious, I went into www.securityfocus.com to check
the
latest vulnerability advisories, for Apache and IIS6. Incredible, Apache
wins, it has many more (not to talk about the many releases since version
2.0)! In fact, I just found one alert about IIS6.
What do you experts think?
Of course, I know IIS was very dangerous before version 6.
But, maybe an IIS6 in a well configured, patched and securized Windows
2003
machine is al last a good choice to house Web Applications?
Or maybe it's too soon, there are few installed, and maybe in the future
it'll have as many holes as the predecessors?
What do you think?
best regards from Spain,
DAVID
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