Patch and Software Management CSCI N321 – System and Network Administration Copyright © 2000, 2011 by Scott Orr and the Trustees of Indiana University
Section Overview Software bugs Patching Approaches Software Installation Software Inventory and Removal
References RedHat Fedora 15 Installation Guide RedHat Fedora Support – Documentation
It’s a bug’s life… Source: History of Computing History of ComputingHistory of Computing Virginia Tech U.S. Navy Capt. Grace Hopper finds first computer bug in August, 1945 From Hopper’s logbook From Hopper’s logbook
Computer Bugs Bug (n): An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware, esp. one that causes it to malfunction. * Security related issues Coredumps Unauthorized access * Source: The New Hackers Dictionary The New Hackers DictionaryThe New Hackers Dictionary
Software Patches Fix bugs discovered after version release Notification Vendor lists Security Announcements (i.e. CERT) Software Auditing Agents (i.e. Secunia PSI) Automated systems Fedora & RedHat: yum update Microsoft: Windows Update
Secunia PSI Can see current state from Traybar Icon
Patch Integrity How do you know that a software update is legitimate? Checksums (e.g. Tripwire) Hash Value of package Cryptographically Signed MS Authenticode
Authenticode Popup
Authenticode ExecutableProgram Signature Author Certificate Source: Web Security and Commerce Simson Garfinkel and Gene Spafford
Large Scale Patching/Updating Pull vs. Push Fully Automated? Gradual Rollout One Some Many Document process
New Software Installations Binary Packages Fedora & RedHat: yum install (Network) rpm –ihv (Local file) Microsoft: setup.exe (Self-Extracting Zip?) Windows Installer (.msi files) Java and ActiveX Installers Source Code Autoconf Look for README files
Installation locations Windows: Typically c:\Program Files Libraries c:\Windows\System32 Linux: Distribution Packages: /usr Third Party: /usr/local Version Control? (i.e. stow)
Package Management Inventory Linux: rpm –qa Microsoft: Start->All Programs Control Panel->Programs->Programs and Features Removal Linux: rpm –e Microsoft: Uninstall programs (Start->All Programs) Control Panel->Programs->Programs and Features