The Operating System of the Crackers and Victims

Higher Level


The Attack

The Attack Level & Response

> The Attacker <
> & Victim's OS <

Some Forms

Operating system used by the crackers vary. Mac is the least likely platform for a cracker. If you find someone use a Mac, he must be a real expert and a fun of Mac. There are not enough tools for Mac, and the tools needed are too much trouble to port. UNIX is the most likely platform and in the same class, FreeBSD and Linux.

The most obvious reason is the cost. You can buy a book about Linux for $30, and with it is a CD-ROM. With only $30, a cracker got everything he could ever haev for these: C/C++ compiler, Perl, TCP/IP, all the source code, and much more.

The cost issue is not trivial. Even old workstation for auction on the Net is expensive. But you can buy a cheap 100MHz Intel with 16M RAM for several bucks. And you can easily put FreeBSD or Linux on it, and suddenly, you get a powerful worstation.

  • SUN

    It is fairly common to see a cracker using either a Solaris or SCO as a platform. This is because even though these products are licenseware, they can be easily obtained. Typically, crackers using these platforms are known as students. They are well educated by the facilities of the universities and they can also get enormous discounts offered. These operating system can be run on PC architecture.

  • UNIX

    UNIX platforms are popular because they generally require a low overhead. A machine with Windows95 or Windows98 and all the trimmings requires a lot of RAM; in contrast, you can run Linux or FreeBSD on a platry 386 and still gain good performance(unless you use X).

  • Microsoft

    The MS platform supports many legitimate security tools that can be used to attack remote hosts. Of that class, more and more crackers are using Windows NT. It out performs Windows 95 by a wide margin had has advanced tools for networking as well. Also Windows NT is a more serious platform in terms of security. It has access control, so crackers can safely offer remote service to their buddies.

    Moreover, the NT becomes more popular because the crackers know that they must know this platform. As NT becomes a more popular platform for Internet services, crackers need to master this basic skill.