[clug] googlebot doing funny things in logs

Alex Satrapa grail at goldweb.com.au
Wed Jun 15 17:54:37 MDT 2011


On 15/06/2011, at 16:47 , Scott Ferguson wrote:

> But please do implement .htaccess files, and check those permissions -
> there's enough malware servers out there infecting Windows machines that
> then slow my firewall down with their incessant attempts to spread their
> diseases. ;-p

I'd also suggest the following advice:

Don't leave stuff on an Internet-facing host that you don't want to be accessible over the Internet. Your home network is not too small to matter. Your home network is not too small to be noticed.

It's really simple: someone out there already knows a vulnerability which you and your OS publisher haven't heard of yet. If you start putting complex applications intended for individual use on an Internet-facing host, chances are you're opening a vulnerability which will end up being exploited by someone like lulzsec. The more junk you have installed on the Internet-facing host — regardless of whether it's listening to connections or just installed and "doing nothing — the more opportunities an intruder has of using your machine for their own purposes.

There's a lot more to securing a machine than simply installing a firewall and DROPping every packet you don't like.

Alex



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