open...: Asus Eeek PC?

10 February 2008

I'm a big fan of the Asus Eee PC, but it seems that someone was a smidge careless with the software that runs by default:

Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to root.

Anonymous said...: There are a couple of ways to look at this. The first is that it's no different from any off-the-shelf OS install - it'll have security vulnerabilities until it gets online updates.

The other is that smbd should not be running unless the user has actually shared something, but I think there might be valid usability reasons to have smbd enabled by default -- for instance sharing the user's home directory or a subdirectory thereof (behind access control, of course).

The moral of the story is -- check for online updates as soon as you get a new device.; 1:32 am
Glyn Moody said...: Absolutely. I still think it's a great machine, but thought it only fair to point out that even Homer nods.....; 6:41 am
Ted said...: According to today's LWN.net Weekly Edition:

"Unfortunately for Eee owners, the modified Xandros distribution that comes with it does not yet have an update for Samba."

That is certainly a problem, then.; 3:50 am
Glyn Moody said...: But I think that there are fixes on the Eee forums.; 6:49 am