[sf-lug] /cool.tricks

[Rick Moen]

Quoting maestro (maestro415 at gmail.com):

> *5.4. Securing access to the X Window System
> -------------------------------------------*
> 
> pretty good info and maybe some 'tricks'
> 
> some don't/didn't know.

On the one hand, it's a good idea for people to know _why_ having
'-nolisten tcp' be specified on X11 invocations.  Failure to do that was
how supposed security expert Tsutomu Shimomura got caught napping by
Kevin Mitnick in 1995.  See:

https://www.eecis.udel.edu/~bmiller/cis459/2007s/readings/mitnick.html

On the other hand:

The raw X11 protocol with free ability of anything on the network to
open an X11 client connection is a huge security risk.  That's why even
back in 1995, we all knew to _not do it_.  Shimomura was widely mocked
for ioncompetence unbefitting a self-proclaimed security expert.  The
more so because that risk was so gratuitous, even back then:  As
everyone knew, you could and should support remote X11 client
connections over ssh.

And that, the year the above was already old, old news, was _1995_.  The
reason you don't really have to worry about this any more is that it's
not 1995 any more.  Nobody leaves X11 open to the network by default.


> /cool.tricks

Surely, /usr/local/doc/cool.tricks .

Understanding the rationale behind design of the filesystem hierarchy,
i.e., the reasons why things go where they do, is very a good idea.  The
filesystem hierarchy is your friend.  And things should not go into the
root directory just because you cannot be bothered to think of where
they belong.