[gentoo-user] Re: Horribly off-topic linux distro question...

[7v5w7go9ub0o]

Steve wrote:
> In the context of online banking, where Windows of some flavour is the
> desktop OS, I see a substantial risk arising through spyware and/or
> viruses.  I suspect that a neat way to mitigate this would be to run an
> OS from a CD which offers nothing more fancy than a basic web-browser.
>
> Is there anything like this already available?
>

My preference is using a safe browser (Opera with plugins removed) on a
QEMU/Hardened Gentoo VM - on a USB flash stick. It presents the user
with a window in which the Linux OS boots up and in my case, presents a
Fluxbox desktop.

- The VM (actually, a qemu emulator in "virtual" mode) will start up
without privilege - say, while on the road at a public library.

- At the end of the session, there are no relics that I can find, except
for a single, minor note in the windows registry.

- The SSL connection is established within the Linux VM, so all the
host sees is an encrypted connection to your bank.

- IIUC, today's biggest banking concerns, besides pharming and phishing,
are Trojan/Keyloggers. This kind of VM is  -probably- immune from most
kinds of spyware on the Windows host, though not hardware loggers on the
keyboard or Terminal. Workaround is to have passwords handled
automatically by the browser within the Linux OS - so that passwords are 
neither typed nor displayed.

- Other banking concerns are pharming, DNS poisoning, and XSS attacks.
So I go to my banking site with FireFox first, confirm that the DNS is
correct (or do your own lookup at Sam Spade), and have NoScript confirm
that everything is o.k. Then use Opera (safer browser) to consummate the
transaction.

- If you go this route, do a little research and get a fast and quick
USB flash.

HTH




-- 
gentoo-user@l.g.o mailing list