FlyingGiraffe
I don't think I misunderstood it, although I may have phrased my comments poorly.
UNIX has, indeed, allowed raw socket access for years (always?), but only to root. Log in as a normal user and you only have limited socket access - most importantly, you do not have the level of access to spoof IP packets.
If J. Random Hacker gets root access on a UNIX box then it is the ultimate DDoS tool, but getting root access is hard, keeping it is also hard, and the key to a DDoS attack is that you have lots of machines available to attack with. That's a lot of work for JRH to do, and he's up against skilled sysadmins while he is doing it. Well, at least some. The UNIX world isn't perfect, either. The popular Linux distributions become pretty easy to hack after a while if you don't keep pace with security patches as the loopholes become more widely known. At least security patches are readily available, widely advertised and people using Linux generally have some technical ability.
Unpatched Linux boxes are a problem.
Now, it looks like the picture is changing. Windows is not as secure as UNIX, period, and that is particularly true of the home flavours which have never escaped the fact that they are single-user systems at heart. As Gibson points out, the saving grace so far is that, without raw socket access, you cannot spoof IP packets. You can do DDoS attacks, but in a more limited form. That's about to change.
We're about to see many more computers permanently connected to the internet, as ADSL and the like take hold (I know you can get it now, but, at least in the UK, it is limited to the fairly serious user).
These computers are increasingly going to be owned by people who don't understand them, and are not worried about keeping them secure. Microsoft themselves don't help that much. Owned by people who get email containing unknown attachments which they run. Microsoft dont help that either. And now, these computers will be able to do things that were previously limited to root-compramised UNIX boxes. I can see why Gibson is worried.
There is nothing new here, I agree. However, doing it is going to become a whole lot easier, so that novice 13 year old h@xx0r-d00dz are going to get to play. At least up until now it took a bit more skill, which might make you think about what you are doing. Now, our 13 year old h@xxor can kill Amazon if he get's upset that his book is a day late.
Maybe there should be an operating system for people who can't work VCR's, but you need Microsoft to play ball and right now they are busy implementing raw sockets into home versions of windows. Joe Sixpack really needs that
