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linux live cd for extra security has anybody given any thought to that?
5 Responses to linux live cd for extra security has anybody given any thought to that?
Well, you do have to consider – most flash drives only have encryption support for windows. I haven’t seen many available for Linux. So if you loose your flash drive, than you are really in trouble.
And drivers can be an issue. On a normal install, you can just place drivers on the hard drive, and you’re done. On a LiveCD, you have no way to carry the drivers along, meaning that you might not always have working audio/video/networking/etc.
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Excellent security! Two drawbacks I can think of though. 1) Speed. The computer will be quite a bit slower running off of the optical drive. 2) File storage. Pretty good chance there may come a time when you want to store something.
With hard drives being so inexpensive I would install at least one distro to the hard drive. You can still boot off a live CD and run from that even if you have Linux installed to the hard drive.
I’ve used Linux Mint and it ROCKS!
Knoppix is the BEST rescue DVD I’ve ever seen!
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I must admit I too have thought of doing this as I’ve got a couple of PC’s feeling sorry for themselves, I think I will give it a go.
I think the distros should run straight off the Live CD as no data has to physically pass through the Hard Drive.
The only drawback is as mentioned above, is saving data.
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For those who are extra paranoid, I guess it would give an added layer of security, along with a lot more inconvenience. I like to use, and therefore must add, programs that are not on the liveCD. I also like to have up-to-date software, with bug fixes and [oh no!!! insecure!!!] patches for security issues that are found.
I like the speed and stability that I get with installed Ubuntu. And I like to tinker with other distros – so that means I need installed software.
I have been using linux for 5 or 6 years now, and never had a virus / spyware / malware problem in linux. And I have used linux to fix virus problems on my windoze partition.
There was a liveCd distro that allowed writing to the harddisk. I don’t remember which one that was, but it allowed for permanant configuration, and other changes. But I don’t think it handled the issue of installing new software.
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You can do that with a usb flash drive, too. The only problem is that most old computers don’t boot from usb. You might want to check out the damn small machine:
http://damnsmalllinux.org/store/Mini_ITX_Systems/Damn_Small_Machine
They even sell parts to build your own
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