Re: /proc filesystems (Was: [cobalt-users] I'm an idiot - please help me)

["Nico Meijer" <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Carrie,

> [root /root]# ls -alR / > full.ls.listing.txt
> ls: /proc/10/exe: Permission denied

<snippetysnip>

The /proc entries are not really files on disk. They are references to
kernel features. Anyone care to elaborate? My knowledge of this particular
item is very superficial.

For instance, you could say (as root): echo 1 >
/proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_all. Now your box won't be pingable
anymore, which is one more small security layer. Everything else will of
course function as normal. You could place this in your rc.local.

Prior to a portscan, some kiddiez like to pingsweep (if that's the correct
phrase for it) an entire subnet to see which hosts are up in that subnet.
Nmap has such a feature: nmap -sP. Your host would then not show up, so the
chances of being scanned are lessened.

Why you would get a permission denied? Dunno, unfortunately.

Hope you are somewhat less baffled... Nico