Patch and Software Management CSCI N 321 – System and Network Administration Copyright © 2000, 2012 by Scott Orr and the Trustees of Indiana University
Section Overview Software bugs Patching Approaches Software Installation Software Inventory and Removal
References Red. Hat Fedora 15 Installation Guide Red. Hat Fedora Support – Documentation
It’s a bug’s life… U. S. Navy Capt. Grace Hopper finds first computer bug in August, 1945 From Hopper’s logbook Source: History of Computing Virginia Tech
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
Software Patches Fix bugs discovered after version release Notification n Vendor email lists Security Announcements (i. e. CERT) Software Auditing Agents (i. e. Secunia PSI) Automated systems n n Fedora & Red. Hat: 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) n n Hash Value of package Cryptographically Signed MS Authenticode
Authenticode Popup
Authenticode Executable Program Signature Author Certificate Source: Web Security and Commerce Simson Garfinkel and Gene Spafford
Large Scale Patching/Updating Pull vs. Push Fully Automated? Gradual Rollout n n n One Some Many Document process
New Software Installations Binary Packages n Fedora & Red. Hat: w yum install (Network) w rpm –ihv (Local file) n Microsoft: w setup. exe (Self-Extracting Zip? ) w Windows Installer (. msi files) n Java and Active. X Installers Source Code n n Autoconf Look for README files
Installation locations Windows: n n Typically c: Program Files Libraries c: WindowsSystem 32 Linux: n n n Distribution Packages: /usr Third Party: /usr/local Version Control? (i. e. stow)
Package Management Inventory n Linux: rpm –qa n Microsoft: w Start->All Programs w Control Panel->Programs and Features Removal n Linux: rpm –e n Microsoft: w Uninstall programs (Start->All Programs) w Control Panel->Programs and Features