Advanced OpenSSH usage: operation and access control
by Saad Kadhi

OpenSSH offers powerful features that allow fine grained operation and access control when using RSA or DSA key pairs such as: - controlling port-forwarding (TCP or X11): denying port-forwarding for some specific keys while permitting only specific ports to specific hosts to be forwarded - associating a command to a key - tying keys to specific hosts: a user is only allowed to authenticate with a given key when coming from specific hosts Read More

Patching OpenBSD
by Brad Schonhorst

Updating your machine to the latest secure version should be done as soon as you finish installation. The patches fix any possible security holes that have been discovered since the release of the OS. It is a good idea to subscribe to the security-announce mailing list so you can be notified when a new patch is released.

The official list of patches released for your version of OpenBSD can be found at the Errata website. The latest point release will be displayed along with the patch list for previous versions. You will need to install the patches listed for all architectures as well as any listed for your platform.

To update your system you will need two things. Read More

Would Be CMS
by Jan Stocker

My web site is made of static web pages, but on all pages you can see the same title, menu and footer. You will say, pah, why don't you use PHP and here you go. But my provider does not give me access for server scripting for the money I have paid.

The only solution is to use frames, I would not, or to copy the main framework to each of the pages. I have made a would-be-cms PERL script doing this in a dynamic way. Read More

Keeping FreeBSD Up To Date
by Richard Bejtlich

An important system administration task, and a principle of running a defensible network, is keeping operating systems and applications up-to-date. Running current software is critical when older services are vulnerable to exploitation. Obtaining new features not found in older applications is another reason to run current software. Fortunately, open source software offers a variety of means to give users a secure, capable computing environment.

This article presents multiple ways to keep the FreeBSD operating system up-to-date. I take a FreeBSD 5.2.1 RELEASE system through a subset of security advisories to explain the different sorts of patches an administrator might apply. In a the next article I describe how to use the FreeBSD ports tree and related tools to keep non-OS applications up-to-date. Read More

Daemon's Advocate
by Wes Peters

Between rumors of updates to the ubiquitous Gnu Public License (GPL) to the open source release of Solaris and the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) from Sun have fueled new discussion on this old topic, raising issues of whether we really need hundreds of slightly different licenses, and renewed interest in one or a very few open source licenses that can easily be understood by businessmen.

While remaining skeptical as to whether most businessmen really care about licensing at all, I am curious to learn how (or if) all this open source licensing and software have translated into the business world? Let us take a tour through some corners of the open source business you may not be familiar with.

A few months ago I was casting about for a small system to use as a mail server for a handful of users, preferably one that would run NetBSD. Read More