system breach

[gareth]

On Fri 2006-12-29 (11:07), Matthew Seaman wrote:
> > Oct 23 00:31:42 lordcow kernel: pid 48464 (conftest), uid 0: exited on signal 12 (core dumped)
> > Oct 23 01:19:26 lordcow kernel: pid 17512 (conftest), uid 0: exited on signal 12 (core dumped)
> 
> These are from autoconf testing various capabilities of the system to do
> with signal handling -- nothing to be worried about.  

ok, ta.

> Are you running a web server as root on this machine?  This illustrates

nope, as the www user.

> why that is such a bad idea...  If you aren't running a web server,
> but only using PHP as a command line tool, then have you been doing any
> work with such things as IDEs or other large toolsets?  They often
> have the capability to download and install extra bits at a mouseclick.

no haven't used it from the command line, only webserver

> The best defense against all of this sort of stuff is to be fully
> patched and up to date with all your installed software.  PHP is a

i use portupgrade at least once a week