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发信人: Lg (创造人生的传奇), 信区: Linux
标 题: The Phoenix Adaptive Firewall - Security Through Obscurity?
发信站: BBS 荔园晨风站 (Sat Dec 11 23:16:28 1999), 站内信件
The Phoenix Adaptive Firewall - Security Through Obscurity?
Dec 10, 1999, 05:41 UTC (2 Talkbacks) (Other stories by Emmett Plant)
By Emmett Plant
Editor, Linux Today
The Linux community is filled with people who do security for a living, and
protect their networks with invaluable tools like ipchains. On December 13th,
these people will be given a free opportunity to put another firewall solution
through its paces.
That's when Progressive Systems, Inc. will start giving away a personal use
version of its Phoenix Adaptive Firewall. According to Progressive Systems,
Phoenix is the first Linux firewall to be certified by the International
Computer Security Association (ICSA). Progressive claims that the level of
session support in the fully-featured firewall allows it to secure desktops,
home networks, or low traffic servers. Beginning December 13, the software can
be downloaded from a variety of sites, including Progressive's home page,
http://www.progressive-systems.com.
According to Alex Hutton, Director of Sales and Marketing at Progressive
Systems, the 'personal use' version is only good for two 'user' connections,
and is basically just a tool to see how well it will hold up. Hutton suggested
that it will do well for people with small home networks.
The fact that Progressive's firewall is ICSA-certified will be important to
some people in the purchasing seats at large companies, but their current
stance on Open Source and security-through-obfuscation may not hold water with
many seasoned Linux administrators.
"As a security-focused company, we have to put the concerns of the corporate
user over the concerns of the open source ideal. If we could get 99% of our
users to upgrade to every patch, that would be ideal and attractive to us, but
patch rates aren't near that sort of return," said Hutton.
It seems that Progressive's biggest concern is that of inherent security, and
when queried by Linux Today, Hutton alluded to several cases in which Apache
and Sendmail were causing security holes, and that patches had been made
available for the system, but 70% of the installations never set up the patch.
To Progressive, opening up the source code would mean constant checking,
re-checking and patching, and that would mean that customers would face a major
security risk in the meantime.
While the personal use 2-user connection limit version will be free, the
standard version sells for $2995 with no connection limits. SmartGate VPN from
V-ONE is also available as an extension to the Phoenix Adaptive Firewall.
Progressive Systems has no plans to Open Source the firewall engine due to
support issues and encryption laws, but they may Open Source some of their
other software technology, which is a step in the right direction. Another good
thing is that they're not jumping on a Linux bandwagon; Progressive has already
been in the Linux and UNIX business for quite a while.
"We chose Linux not for the 'hype engine', but for the facts that Linux is fast
and stable, and made our solution value competitive with NT firewalls," said
Hutton.
For more information, visit the Progressive Systems Web site.
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