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Firewalls | Computer Security

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Suppose you are given a machine and asked to harden it against external attacks. How would you go about doing it? A possible starting point might be to look at the functionality and the network services that this machine is providing to the outside world. If any of the network services have bugs or security flaws, an attacker could exploit that part of the service and might be able to penetrate your machine. As we know, bugs are inevitable, and bugs in security-critical applications often lead to security holes. Therefore, the more network services that your machine runs, the greater the risk of attacks. The general principle here is that bugs present in code that you do not run cannot hurt you. Therefore, the less functionality you try to provide, the less of an opportunity exists for security vulnerabilities in that functionality. This suggests one simple way to reduce the risk of external attack: Turn off every unnecessary network service. By disabling every network-accessible appli

Firewalls | Computer Security Skip to main content Menu Expand (external link) Document Search Copy Copied Computer Security 35. Firewalls 35.1. Introduction to Controlling Network Access Suppose you are given a machine and asked to harden it against external attacks. How would you go about doing it? A possible starting point might be to look at the functionality and the network services that this machine is providing to the outside world. If any of the network services have bugs or security flaws, an attacker could exploit that part of the service and might be able to penetrate your machine.

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