- Oct 3, 2022
- 557
One of the differences between Windows and Linux is that in Linux everything comes in small separate packages. Each little functionality is separate. And those packages can most times be uninstalled separately. There are times when one package depends on another. When you attempt to uninstall it the package manager will tell you what related packages are also going to uninstalled and give you a choice of whether or not to continue.
However if you are sure that the package is not wanted, or that it is under attack, you have the choice of forcefully uninstalling it and leaving the dependent packages alone. In Ubuntu that choice is offered by
Another thing about Linux is that are oftentimes several packages that do the same function. For example the Terminal or 'command prompt' as we call it in Windows, there are several replaceable pieces. There is bash. the default one, or csh, or dash, or sh, or zsh plus a few others. Some distros' like Ubuntu you can replace it anything. So when my red team discovered an attack on bash, I switched to dash. End of attack.
Together these two features gives you flexibility when dealing with an attack. You don't have to be a sitting duck waiting for a patch.
However if you are sure that the package is not wanted, or that it is under attack, you have the choice of forcefully uninstalling it and leaving the dependent packages alone. In Ubuntu that choice is offered by
dpkg -r --force-depends <package>
. And in Fedora you can uninstall a single package with rpm -e --nodeps <package>
, without uninstalling anything else.Another thing about Linux is that are oftentimes several packages that do the same function. For example the Terminal or 'command prompt' as we call it in Windows, there are several replaceable pieces. There is bash. the default one, or csh, or dash, or sh, or zsh plus a few others. Some distros' like Ubuntu you can replace it anything. So when my red team discovered an attack on bash, I switched to dash. End of attack.
Together these two features gives you flexibility when dealing with an attack. You don't have to be a sitting duck waiting for a patch.
Last edited: