Patch and Software Management

CSCI N321 – System and Network Administration

Copyright © 2000, 2011 by Scott Orr and the Trustees of Indiana University

Section Overview

Software bugsPatching ApproachesSoftware InstallationSoftware Inventory and Removal

References

RedHat Fedora 15 Installation GuideRedHat Fedora Support – Documentation

It’s a bug’s life…

Source: Source: History of Computing

Virginia TechVirginia Tech

U.S. Navy Capt. Grace Hopper finds U.S. Navy Capt. Grace Hopper finds first computer bug in August, 1945first computer bug in August, 1945

From Hopper’s logbook From Hopper’s logbook

Computer Bugs

Bug (n): An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware, esp. one that causes it to malfunction.*

Security related issuesCoredumpsUnauthorized access

**Source: Source: The New Hackers Dictionary

Software Patches

Fix bugs discovered after version releaseNotification Vendor email lists Security Announcements (i.e. CERT) Software Auditing Agents (i.e. Secunia PSI)

Automated systems Fedora & RedHat: yum update Microsoft: Windows Update

Secunia PSI

Can see current state from Traybar Icon

Patch Integrity

How do you know that a software update is legitimate?Checksums (e.g. Tripwire) Hash Value of package Cryptographically Signed

MS Authenticode

Authenticode Popup

Authenticode

ExecutableExecutableProgramProgram

SignatureSignature

Author CertificateAuthor Certificate

Source: Web Security and Commerce Simson Garfinkel and Gene Spafford

Large Scale Patching/Updating

Pull vs. PushFully Automated?Gradual Rollout One Some Many

Document process

New Software Installations

Binary Packages Fedora & RedHat:

yum install <pkg> (Network) rpm –ihv <pkg> (Local file)

Microsoft: setup.exe (Self-Extracting Zip?) Windows Installer (.msi files)

Java and ActiveX Installers

Source Code Autoconf Look for README files

Installation locations

Windows: Typically c:\Program Files Libraries c:\Windows\System32

Linux: Distribution Packages: /usr Third Party: /usr/local Version Control? (i.e. stow)

Package Management

Inventory Linux: rpm –qa Microsoft:

Start->All Programs Control Panel->Programs->Programs and Features

Removal Linux: rpm –e <pkg> Microsoft:

Uninstall programs (Start->All Programs) Control Panel->Programs->Programs and Features